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Model Documentation

Class: Operation

The Operation class is used in the operations attribute of the AnalysisMethod class to define the statistical operations to be performed for any analysis that references the analysis method.

Examples of operations include:

  • "Count of subjects by group" and "Percent of subjects by group" in a "Summary by group of a categorical variable" method.
  • "Mean", "Standard Deviation", "Minimum Value", "Maximum Value", and confidence intervals in a "Summary by group of a continuous variable" method.
  • "P-value" in a "Pearson's chi-square test group comparison for a categorical variable" method.
Each operation generates a single result for each combination of groups in "results-by-group" grouping factors referenced by an analysis that references the analysis method containing the operation (see the Analysis and OperationResult sections for more information about "results-by-group" grouping factors). Each result is generally expected to represent a single value, but sponsors may choose to define operations that generate composite results as a combination of more than 1 individual value. However, the disadvantage of composite results is that there will not be individual metadata elements to describe each component of a composite result. A better approach is to define operations that generate individual result values and then, if necessary, combine the result values from these operations to produce a composite value for display.

ER Diagram: Operation

Each operation is defined as an instance of the Operation class and, in each instance:

  • The id attribute contains the identifier value assigned for the operation.
  • The name attribute indicates the assigned name of the operation.
  • The label attribute contains a short label for the operation, such as might be shown in an output display (e.g., "n", "%", "Mean", "SD")
  • The description attribute may be used record a detailed description of the operation.
  • The referencedOperationRelationships attribute may be used to specify relationships to any other operations whose results are referenced in the calculation of the results for this operation, as described below.
  • The resultPattern attribute contains a textual representation for the default pattern or format used for the display of the results of this operation in output displays. The pattern should indicate the precision of the value to be displayed (e.g., "X.XXX") and may include parentheses or other additional characters (e.g., "(XXX.X)" or "±XX.XX"). In general, the pattern will usually be in the format that is displayed in output table shells, but sponsors may choose to use other pattern specifications.


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