surveyctocompare

A Stata command to compare two versions of a SurveyCTO XLSForm and generate a clean, formatted Excel dashboard summarizing all changes in variables, labels, and choice lists.

Features

• Detects added, removed, and updated survey questions
• Classifies label changes by nature (significant, minor, formatting)
• Compares choice lists and maps them to affected variables
• Exports a polished Excel dashboard with summaries and details
• Optional formatting using Python's openpyxl

Installation

To install the latest version using the github package by E. F. Haghish:

net install github, from("https://haghish.github.io/github/")

github install kellymontano/surveyctocompare

To update the command in the future:

github update kellymontano/surveyctocompare

Alternatively, you can use classic net install:

net install surveyctocompare, from("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kellymontano/surveyctocompare/main/") replace

Syntax

surveyctocompare , form1("form_v1.xlsx") form2("form_v2.xlsx") output("dashboard.xlsx") [noformat]

Options

• form1() and form2() — Paths to the two .xlsx SurveyCTO forms to compare
• output() — File path for the generated Excel report
• noformat — Skips optional Excel formatting (no Python required)

Output

The Excel dashboard includes:

• A Summary sheet with counts by type of change
• Variable Updates: new or removed survey fields
• Label Updates: textual label changes with classification
• Choice Updates: added/removed/edited choices and affected variables

Requirements

• Stata 16 or newer
• Optional: Python 3 with openpyxl installed (for formatting)

Author

Kelly Montaño
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

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Feel free to share, reuse, or contribute.