External source of Interview Answers

  Values for answers are typically derived from completion of AskTable Interviews discussed in this section of the Manual.

  But those Interviews are not the only potential source of values.

   If you take a look at the answer file that Pathagoras creates, you can see that the answers are stored as simple csv files. This kind of file can be created from any source, including Excel. So if a  user skilled in Excel wanted to create a spreadsheet that could generate a csv file in the style of

“!groupname1!: /value/^upperlimit’”

“!groupname2!: /value/^upperlimit’”

“!groupname3!: /value/^upperlimit’”

etc., Pathagoras could read the file and apply the 'answers' to a Pathagorized document.

   In the above, the groupname is presented between two exclamation marks (as normal) followed by a colon and a slash. A single 'value' (representing the positional value of the choice made) follows, and that is followed by another slash and a caret. The number of possible choice that the !groupname! represents closes the line. The entire line is enclosed within double-quiotation marks.

  So if, for example, in a separate database where the groupname is 'color' and the choices are Red, Blue, Green, and the user choses 'Blue', the user could export from that database to a csv record the plain text formula:

"!color!:/2/3"  (the value is 2 and the upper limit is 3)

. If the user chose both Red and Green, the individual choices are separated by an asterisk. The formula would be

"!color! 1*3/^3".

Value: The positional value of the choice as it relates to all choices. So in the list "Red, Blue, Green", Blue is 2.

Upper limit: This refers to the total number of 'Options" choices that are presented in the document for possible selection. If the user could choose among Red, Blue or Green, the upper limit would be '3'. For the 50 United States, the upper limit would be '50'.

If the answer is binary (i.e., for an <<*Optional* choice), Pathagoras uses a slightly different nomenclature. The value would be 0 (for 'false' or 'delete') and 1 (for 'true' or 'keep'). The upper limit off an Optional choice is always '1'.

"guardian!:/0/^1"

If the value is a number (*Repeat*), the value is presented between hashtags, with no upper limit.

e.g.

"!number of Children!: #3#"