Module 1 — Opening data & the two Views

Question: what does a dataset look like in ChakataStat, and how does data get in and out?

Open the sample

File → Open Sample Dataset (Ctrl+Shift+O). The status bar reports 600 cases; the title shows an unsaved document — the bundled sample can never be overwritten, so you can experiment freely.

The two Views

The bottom-left tabs switch between two faces of the same dataset:

Data View (Ctrl+1) — one row per participant, one column per variable. Click a cell: its full row and column tint so you can trace a case; type to edit; Ctrl+F finds values. Hover a column header for the variable's description.
Variable View (Ctrl+2) — one row per variable, holding everything ChakataStat knows about it: name, type, label, value labels, missing values, measure. Module 2 lives here.

Round trip: export, then import

The sample opened fully dressed — labels and codes all set. To see what raw data looks like, push it out and bring it back:

File → Export…, format CSV, save as mystudy.csv.
File → Import Data…, choose mystudy.csv, accept the header-row prompt.

Same values — but check Variable View: EducationLevel's value labels and FastingGlucose_mmolL's missing code are gone. A CSV carries values only; the metadata lives in the .ckd document. That is why the last step of any session is File → Save (Ctrl+S) — it keeps data and definitions.

Re-open the dressed original with File → Open Sample Dataset before the next module.

Exercise

In Data View, find participant P1234 (Ctrl+F). What is their BMI?
Export to CSV and re-import. Which columns import as String and which as Numeric? Why did the importer decide that way?
Save your imported copy as mystudy.ckd, close and reopen it. Did it remember anything the CSV did not? (Not yet — you have added no metadata. Module 2 fixes that.)

The syntax trail

Open the Syntax tab: even this module left commands (the export). From here on, every module ends with the commands it generated — the growing, re-runnable record of your session.