kstIO File formatskstIO-package.RdKnowledge space theory by Doignon and Falmagne (1985, 1999) is a set- and order-theoretical framework, which proposes mathematical formalisms to operationalize knowledge structures in a particular domain. The 'kstIO' package provides basic functionalities to read and write KST data from/to files.
This page focuses on the different file formats that can be used with
the kstIO functions.
Over time and in different research groups with knowledge space theory, different file formats have evolved.
The probably simplest and most direct approach is to store the information in a binary ASCII matrix where a "1" in row i and column j means that item j is element of state/response pattern i.
There is no separating character between the columns, and there should be no trailing whitespace at the end of the line. The last line of the matrix must carry an EndOfLine - in most editors (except vi) this means an empty line after the matrix.
This format (Hockemeyer, 2001) extends the matrix format by two preceding header lines containing the number of items and the number of states/response patterns, respectively.
This format (Poetzi \& Wesiak, 2001) extends the KST tools format by yet another preceding header line with format and content metadata. This new header line has the format
#SRBT v2.0 <struct> ASCII <comment>where <struct> specifies the type of data stored in the
file and <comment> is an optional arbitrary comment.
Furthermore, SRBT files may contain an arbitrary number of comment lines after the number of states/patterns.
The following data types are supported by the respective
kstIO functions:
basis
data
relation
space
structure
For kbase and surmise relation files, the encoding
information "ASCII" is missing because these files are always
in ASCII format.
Base files are available only in KST and SRBT tools format. Their matrix part differs from the other files in that it contains "0", "1", and "2". A "1" means that the state is minimal for the item and a "2" means that it is not (but contains the item). A "0" stands (as always) for the state not containing the item.
Surmise relation files are available only in matrix and SRBT tools format as they were never used in KST tools format.
Please note that their matrices are somewhat transposed in comparison to all the other formats. Row i and column j is equal to "1" if knowing i can be surmised from knowing j, and equal to "0" otherwise. Thus, column j describes the minimal state for item j.
#SRBT v2.0 structure ASCII 3 5 # Some comment or item information 000 100 110 101 111
Cord Hockemeyer cord.hockemeyer@uni-graz.at
Doignon, J.-P. & Falmagne, J.-C. (1985). Spaces for the assessment of knowledge. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 23, 175–196.
Doignon, J.-P. & Falmagne, J.-C. (1999). Knowledge Spaces. Springer Verlag, Berlin.
Hockemeyer, C. (2001). KST Tools User Manual (2nd ed.). https://kst.hockemeyer.at/techreports/KST-Tools_TechRep_FWF01.pdf.
Poetzi, S. & Wesiak, G. (2001). SRbT Tools User Manual. https://kst.hockemeyer.at/techreports/SRBT-Tools_TechRep_FWF01.pdf.
kbase
space_property
kstructure