Text File Option Nearly any database system can be queried to produce a comma-separated text file. If your compensation records are stored in a database program, you may find this method of participating in our survey to be the easiest, especially if you are reporting on a very large number of engineers. Contact your database management personnel if you need help. While these instructions are specific for a text file, you may also submit a spreadsheet or database file that follows this format, where the commas in a text file correspond to the column divisions in a spreadsheet. INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING SALARY DATA IN A TEXT FILE Please read the instructions below for completing our salary survey in this format. Please compile the salary data in a text file that follows exactly the directions listed below. Your salary data file MUST take the following format: 1. The data file must be pure text format (no rich text or formatting of any type). 2. Data must be entered in the form of one line (or record) per engineer, terminated by a carriage return/line feed combination – the "enter" or "return" key on most systems. Don't forget to use the "enter" or "return" after the last line of data. (If you are creating the text file by exporting from a database program, these specifications will probably be the default for your program's export function.) 3. The contents of each line should be as follows (refer to the example image above): Character 01: either S or N, for Supervisor or Nonsupervisor. Character 02: always a comma. Character 03: B, M, or P, for Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. degree. If degree is unknown or there is no degree, a B.S. equivalent will be assumed. Character 04: always a comma. Character 05-06: two digits for YEAR GRADUATED WITH BACHELOR'S DEGREE. (last two digits only). If unknown, enter "XX" AND enter the age (see next item). Character 07: always a comma. Character 08-09: two digits for AGE. If the previous YEAR GRADUATED WITH BACHELOR'S DEGREE item has been provided, this may be treated as an unknown and coded "XX." If both the year and the age are provided, the EWC will use those data to improve its procedures for using age to estimate the year of graduation with the B.S. degree. Note that the "XX" code should be explicitly entered (blanks or zeros will be treated as "XX" IF the preceding YEAR data is supplied). Character 10: always a comma. Character 11-16: up to six digits for annual salary. Remaining characters: A descriptive word for the discipline of the engineer (electrical, mechanical, etc.). If this information is unknown, it may be omitted. Text files may be quote-delimited at your discretion. ANY ENTRIES OTHER THAN THOSE DESCRIBED ABOVE WILL BE ASSUMED TO BE ERRORS AND WILL CAUSE THE ENTIRE LINE TO BE IGNORED. 4. There will be as many lines as there are engineers reported. 5. The underlying requirement for supplying data to the EWC in this format is that you are able to match up your own particular categories with our own survey-specific categories. For example, your database may list several different levels of supervisors, whereas our survey groups all supervisors into one broad category. Using your discretion, you must be able to classify your data according to our defined categories. 6. Save your text file with a name that identifies your company and make sure you keep a back-up copy on your computer. 7. Send your text file to us as an attached file to salary@aaes.org. Please be sure to include your contact information; unidentified data cannot be used. 8. We will also need the identification information on your company in order to categorize your data properly. Please see the first page of the paper form.