USING TABLEBUILDER

INTRODUCTION

For general information relating to the TableBuilder or instructions on how to use features of the TableBuilder product, please refer to the User Manual: TableBuilder, 2013 (cat. no. 1406.0.55.005).

More detailed information relating to survey methodologies, such as the counting units and weights applied to the TableBuilder dataset, are explained in the Survey methodology section.

The TableBuilder dataset contains all of the person and attendance level data applicable to the Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues and Events topic. Information on the structure is provided in the File structure section.

CONTINUOUS DATA ITEMS

TableBuilder includes a number of continuous variables which can have a response value at any point along a continuum. Some continuous data items are allocated special codes for certain responses (e.g. 9999 = 'Not applicable'). When creating ranges in TableBuilder for such continuous items, special codes will automatically be excluded. Therefore the total will show only 'valid responses' rather than all responses (including special codes).

For example:

The following shows the tabulation of the data items 'Weekly personal income from all sources - continuous' by 'Sex of person'. The continuous values of the data item are contained in the 'A valid response was recorded' row. To show the actual continuous values in a table, a range must be created.

Here is the same table with a range applied for the continuous values for the data item 'Weekly personal income from all sources - continuous'. Note that the numbers of respondents for the 'Don't know' category no longer contribute to the table.

Any special codes for continuous data items are listed in the Data Item List.

FIELD EXCLUSION RULES

To ensure confidentiality, TableBuilder prevents the cross-tabulation of certain variables which could result in respondents being identified. These are know as field exclusion rules. These restrictions have been applied to the sub-state geographic and SEIFA data items such that only one sub-state geographic or SEIFA data item can be included in any one table.

The sub-state geographic and SEIFA data items available are:

• Greater Capital City Statistical Areas
• Remoteness Areas - ASGS
• Section of State - ASGS
• SEIFA - Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage - 2011 - SA1 - Deciles National
• SEIFA - Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage - 2011 - SA1 - Deciles National
• SEIFA - Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage - 2011 - SA1 - Deciles State
• SEIFA - Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage - 2011 - SA1 - Deciles State

If field exclusion rules exist for certain variables, users will see the following message: “Maximum number of fields in exclusion group exceeded.”

ADJUSTMENT OF CELL VALUES

To minimise the risk of identifying individuals in aggregate statistics, a technique is used to randomly adjust cell values. This technique is called perturbation. Perturbation involves small random adjustment of the statistics and is considered the most satisfactory technique for avoiding the release of identifiable statistics while maximising the range of information that can be released. These adjustments have a negligible impact on the underlying pattern of the statistics. After perturbation, a given published cell value will be consistent across all tables. However, adding up cell values to derive a total will not necessarily give the same result as published totals. The introduction of perturbation in publications ensures that these statistics are consistent with statistics released via services such as Table Builder.

ZERO VALUE CELLS

Tables generated from sample surveys will sometimes contain cells with zero values because no respondents that satisfy the parameters of the cell were in the survey. This is despite there being people in the population with those characteristics. That is, the cell may have had a value above zero if all persons in scope of the survey had been enumerated. This is an example of sampling variability which occurs with all sample surveys. Relative Standard Errors cannot be generated for zero cells. Whilst the tables may include cells with zero values, the ABS does not publish such zero estimates in Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues and Events, Australia, 2013-14 (cat. no. 4114.0) and recommends that TableBuilder clients do not use these data either.

MULTI–RESPONSE DATA ITEMS

A number of the survey's data items allow respondents to provide more than one response. These are referred to as 'multi–response data items'. An example of such a data item is shown below. For this data item respondents can report all types of cultural venues and events they have attended in the last 12 months.

When a multiple response data item is tabulated, a person is counted against each response they have provided (e.g. a person may have 'attended a circus' and 'attended a variety show or revue' so they will be counted for each attendance ).

As a result, each person in the appropriate population is counted at least once, and some persons are counted multiple times. Therefore, the total for a multiple response data item will be less than or equal to the sum of its components. Multi–response data items can be identified by the initials 'MR' in the data item list, which can be accessed from the Downloads page. In the example below, the sum of the components is 18,936,800 whereas the total population is 18,486,200.