Questionnaire Programming Language (QPL)

Computer-Aided Telephone Interview Collection and Analysis

GAO: United States General Accounting Office

Special Publications and Software

The GAO produces a PC software system called Questionnaire Programming Language.   QPL provides a way of quickly and reliably automating survey data.  This software enables auditors to quickly write computer-aided telephone interview (CATI) and data-entry programs that make it easy for interviewers to correctly capture information from respondents or files.  It also provides a way of reliably editing the data that has been collected and quickly prepares it for analysis with statistical or text-retrieval software. SPSS, SAS, Lotus and dBase are used for statistical analysis. In addition to being able to collect this type of information within a structured format, QPL can automatically create a text-based data file that can be analyzed with the askSam text-retrieval and hypertext software system.  

QPL Version 4.0, released in April 1996, adds the capability to setup and monitor a network-based CATI or data-entry project. Two new programs, NCOLLECT and MONITOR, allow multiple interviewers to simultaneously share the same data and case control files. This ability can greatly simplify the administration of a project. The project supervisor can remotely keep track of what cases have been attempted and completed.

http://www.gao.gov/qpl.htm