The definition of these accompanying flags easily identifies which variables have been handled in this manner, and the flag always immediately precedes the dollar variable. The Code of -1 is repeated throughout the data and reflects when the skip local specifies that a question is to be skipped. In the codebooks, following the text of the question, the skip logic is specified. The VARxxxx number associated with each variable in the codebook reflects the actual location of that Variable in the data record. Thus VAR0036 in the Wave 1 codebook occupies columns 361-370.
All variables are right justified.
Researchers must re-calculate the location of those variables 2801 on as starting in Variable position 1 on record 2. It is left to the researcher to deal with calculating the locations of the other groupings. Although the data have been merged into one file, the codebooks are in three parts. Each codebook begins with VAR0001. In December of 2000, DPLS staff converted the documentation files from gif to pdf format for easy browsing.