Alternatives Data File

Alternatives data files contain data about alternatives, which is exported and imported through File Menu commands: File/Export alternatives... and File/Import alternatives..., respectively. In DEXiWin, the contents and format of alternatives’ files are controlled at the following points:

  • In ‘Import alternatives’ and ‘Export alternatives’ dialogues that are used to specify file names and basic file format, which is either ‘Tab-delimited’ or ‘Comma-separated (CSV)’.

  • In Settings/Import-Export, where you can specify further details under “Alternatives data format”.

Examples

1. Tab-delimited alternatives data file containing both alternatives from the Car Evaluation model, exported using the default Import/Export settings: : using ‘Base 1’ values, displaying all attributes using indentation, normal orientation, invariant (international) CSV format. Here, the TAB character is denoted ¬.

¬Car1¬Car2
CAR¬4¬3
. PRICE¬3¬2
. . BUY.PRICE¬2¬2
. . MAINT.PRICE¬3¬2
. TECH.CHAR.¬4¬3
. . COMFORT¬3¬3
. . . #PERS¬3¬3
. . . #DOORS¬3¬3
. . . LUGGAGE¬3¬3
. . SAFETY¬3¬2

2. The same data as above but using the comma-separated format, ‘Base 0’ values and including only non-indented basic attributes in normal orientation.

"","Car1","Car2"
"BUY.PRICE","1","1"
"MAINT.PRICE","2","1"
"#PERS","2","2"
"#DOORS","2","2"
"LUGGAGE","2","2"
"SAFETY","2","1"

  1. The same as above, but with text values and transposed orientation.

"","BUY.PRICE","MAINT.PRICE","#PERS","#DOORS","LUGGAGE","SAFETY"
"Car1","medium","low","more","4","big","high"
"Car2","medium","medium","more","4","big","medium"