How to Flatten Variable Sets Structured as Grids

Creating crosstabs with grid-type variable sets can make tables become very wide and difficult to read. An alternative way to look at grid-type variable sets in crosstabs is to flatten them. This process will treat the column headings as spans in the rows of your table, effectively turning a "wide" table into a "long" one.

There are two ways to achieve this in Displayr:

Method 1 - Check a setting in the variable set's Properties

Method 2 - Create a new version that has a Multi Structure

As an example, consider a table created from a grid-type variable set (in this case, a Nominal-Multi) crossed with a Nominal variable set. The example shows a grid consisting of brands and respondents' preferences for those brands, crossed with a gender variable.

We'll go from the above table format to a table that makes it a "long" table instead of a "wide" one, like this:

Requirements

• A variable set with a grid-type structure where there are both rows and columns for the variable set in a summary table. Grid-type variable sets include those with a Structure of:
  • Nominal-Multi
  • Ordinal-Multi
  • Binary-Grid
  • Numeric-Grid

Method 1 - Check a setting in the variable set's Properties

Note that this method is automatically applied to grid-type variable sets created after April 2025. To prevent Crosstabs from automatically flattening the variable set, uncheck this setting. 

1. Select the grid-type variable set under Data Sources.
2. In Properties Under Data > Attributes, check the box labeled Structure as Binary-Multi in crosstabs (or Structure as Numeric-Multi in crosstabs for Numeric variable sets).
3. Now you can create your crosstab. Drag your variable set onto the Page (or into the Report tree) to create a table.
4. Add another variable set to Properties > Columns of your table to create a crosstab. Notice that the original columns in the table are now unnested into the rows.

Method 2 - Create a new version that has a Multi-Structure

This method generates a new variable set under Data Sources that converts a Grid-type variable set to a Binary - Multi variable set. When tabulated, it will go from a Grid, like this:

To a single column of data, like this:

1. Under Data Sources, select the Grid-type variable set you want to convert.
2. Click + > Convert To > Binary/Multi > Flatten Nominal/Ordinal Multi (previously called Flatten Variable Set(s)).

This will create a new variable set in the Data Sources tree, which, when used in a table, will give the "long" version above.

Next

How to Create New Binary Variable(s)