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Using sheets in survey programming

  • Updated

Sheets are data sources hosted in the UI that can function like lists.

define sheet: survey_id.brands
order: [*]
translate: n 

1. Which brands are you familiar with?
type: checkbox
optsfrom: survey_id.brands

This article focuses on how to interact with existing sheets in your survey programming. To learn about creating sheets, see Managing survey sheets.

Details

  • Sheets hosted in a survey's Sheets applet are referenced as survey_id.sheet_id, where 'survey_id' is the survey ID where the sheet is hosted.
  • System sheets are referenced as system.sheet_id.
  • Sheets from another survey on the same server can also be referenced.
  • Sheets can be used in any instance that a list can be used.
  • To control order or translation, use the define sheet widget. Then, apply the order and translate tags (as shown above).
  • Like set lists, sheets support the addition of element decorators, option data decorators, and inclusion/exclusion syntax.
  • Decorators can also be used as column headers in sheets.

Tip! Sheets hosted in a survey can be referenced by that survey without including the survey ID, e.g., optsfrom: sheet_id.

Additional examples

Referencing a system sheet

If the sheet referenced is a system sheet, reference it as system.sheet_id, as shown below.

1. Pick a color
type: radio
optsfrom: system.colors

Using decorators in a sheet

Like lists, sheets support decorators.

Imagine the 'colors' sheet below is stored in a survey called 'demo' on the same server. The 'colors' sheet has the mandatory 'id' and 'text' columns, in addition to the arbitrary decorators, 'ucfirst' and 'happy'.

id text ucfirst happy
1 blue Blue 1
2 red Red 1
3 yellow Yellow 1
4 brown Brown  
99 None None  

Then, the survey references the 'colors' sheet using optsfrom, applying decorators as needed.

  • Q1 & Q2: The text decorator modifies option text (e.g., "I like blue" and "I like Blue" instead of "blue").
  • Q3: A condition decorator with square brackets [ ] filters in only colors marked '1' in the 'happy' column.
1. Pick any color.
type: radio
optsfrom: demo.colors { text: I like [text] }

2. Pick a color with a capital letter.
type: radio
optsfrom: demo.colors { text: I like [ucfirst] }

3. Pick a color that makes you happy.
type: radio
optsfrom: demo.colors [ if ([happy]) ]

Tip! For condition decorators with substitutions, use parentheses if the sheet contains blank values, e.g., [ if ([happy]) ] instead of [ if [happy] ], to ensure blanks are treated as 'false'.

Using a sheet in a block

Using the 'colors' sheet from the previous example, we can reference it in a block with the list tag. The example below loops through all items in the sheet, using the 'text' column, while excluding option 99.

block: <<END  

1. Do you like %%TEXT%%?
type: radio
1. Yes
2. No
3. Sometimes 

END  
list: demo.colors -[99]

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