Working with D-nominate data in Excel

• Data are stored on the courses server in the ICPSR folder

• Data are in Excel or in Stata format

• Key variables are:– Congress number– Party (100=Dem, 200=Rep)– First dimension nominate score

Files are in this directory

This is what the spreadsheet looks like. Notice that there are no “header” (variable names). It’s pretty easy to figure out what each column represents. We want columns A and H, but we have to pay attention to column F.

Look at how I will sort the data, on state, then on district, then on year.

The data are now sorted the way I want.

I have deleted all rows except for Illinois districts.

First, I copy/paste the data for member two to the right of the data for member one.

Hey why does this not line up??

Now I create three new columns. I title the first dimension for member 1 “1 Dem” since that seat was always held by a Dem. I make two more columns (2 Rep and 2 Dem) for the second district data. Now I manually copy/paste.

Now I have reorganized things, eliminated extraneous columns, and am working with district 3.

Now I am done with district 3 data.

Now my graphic is ready to paste into my paper.