Protobi can bin numeric values into ranges for concise display and analysis.
When a project is first opened, Protobi automatically bins numeric variables into ranges and you can change these to reflect your analysis goals.
To edit rounding/binning, press the circle icon select "Round by..." from the context menu.
- Auto — Auto-rounds based on the standard deviation
- Log — Uses logarithmic ranges
- Custom
- Linear bins — Specify your desired equal bin size, e.g. 25
- Custom bins — Enter an array of cut-points, e.g. [10,25,50]
Auto bins
The setting "Auto" chooses a linear range with bin sizes automatically selected to generate a reasonable number of ranges given the standard deviation, with boundaries that snap to nice multiples of 5 or 10.
Log bins
Logarithmic ranges choose bin sizes that neatly map to multiples of 10, 25, and 50, resulting in small ranges for small numbers and bigger ranges for bigger numbers.
Log ranges generally make sense for unbounded numbers and absolute counts, such as income, number of customers, or patient volume.
Linear bins
Here we set "Round by" to Custom: 10
Linear ranges are inclusive of the upper bounds, and exclusive of lower bounds, and rounded to reasonable precision for display. So in above example, the range "21 to 30" really represents "20 < Q3 <= 30".
Custom bins
It's possible to choose arbitrary ranges by specifying a list of cut-points, separated by commas. Here we set "Round by" to [10,25,50]:
This generates bands with the specified values as upper bounds:
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Alternately, it's possible to specify custom ranges that are lower-inclusive by specifying them with as follows, with a square bracket on the left, and a round-parenthesis on the right, e.g. [0,10,25,50)
Specify format
Clients sometimes want a mixture of standalone values and ranges. This will require you to specify formats after setting a custom "Round by..."
Say you have a question for which you want to see respondents who answered: 0, 1, 2, 3-5, 6-9, and 10+. You can choose custom bins: [0,1,2,5,9,100]. For the ranges (e.g. 3-5) specify the upper limit only.
Because custom bin ranges are lower-inclusive, this is the result:
From the context menu choose "Format..." and enter the desired format for each data cut-point. In addition to adding format, un-check "Group unformatted values".
This is the result after specifying format:
