1.3 Variable Names

• Must begin with a letter
• Must be unique
• Can not contain special characters or spaces, except for an underscore ’_’
• Should be short and meaningful, descriptions can be put in the Description column
• Long survey questions should be placed in the description. For the variable name use either a shortened version, or simply Q1, Q2, etc.

Bad Variable Names	Good Variable Names
patient date in clinic	clinic_date
pre-treatment ECOG	ECOG_pre
Q1. What is your relationship to…	Q1_relationship