Survey Logic- FAQ and Troubleshooting

Alchemer logic features allow you to customize your survey for each respondent by dynamically showing survey content based on things like answers to previous questions within the survey, email campaign contact information, or URL variables.

 What is Question Logic?

Question logic allows you to build a condition that will determine when a specific survey question, action item, or media element is shown to a survey respondent. This condition can be based on an answer to an earlier question, system data such as date, or data passed in via the survey URL. Learn how to set up Question Logic in Alchemer.

 What is Page Logic?

Page logic allows you to build a condition that will determine when a specific survey page is shown to a survey respondent. This condition can be based on an answer to an earlier question, system data such as date, or data passed in via the survey URL.

Page Logic allows you to efficiently set up logic for groups of questions. Instead of going through the steps for setting up logic on question after question, you can move all questions with the same logic rules to a single page and set up the logic on the page.

 What is Skip Logic?

Skip logic allows you to build a condition that when met, will interrupt the default survey flow for a respondent and direct them to another location such as another survey page. Skip logic can be used to disqualify a respondent, redirect them to an external website, or to mark their response as complete. Learn how to set up Skip Logic in Alchemer.

If your skip logic condition is based on an answer to a question, the condition is not evaluated right when the question is answered. Rather, the condition is evaluated when the page that the question is on is submitted via the Next or Submit buttons.

Note: You should never need to build skip logic to go from one page directly to what would normally be the next page (such as going from page 1 to page 2). Skip logic should be used to interrupt the default survey flow (such as going from page 1 to page 4).

 What is Disqualify Logic?

Disqualify logic is Skip logic that allows you to build a condition that when met, will interrupt the default survey flow for a respondent, direct them to a customized disqualification message, and flag their response status as Disqualified. Learn how to set up Disqualify Logic in Alchemer.

 What is Answer Option Logic?

Answer Option logic allows you to build a condition that will determine when a specific answer option within a question is shown to a respondent. If using a question as the source of the condition, make sure that this question is on a previous page. Learn how to set up Answer Option Logic in Alchemer.

 What type of logic should I use?

Scenario 1: You have a question in a survey that you only want to show to respondents based upon some condition or combination of conditions; for example, how they answered a previous question. Use Question Logic!

Scenario 2: You have an entire page in a survey that you only want to show to respondents based upon some condition or conditions. Use Page Logic!

Scenario 3: You want to disqualify a respondent or skip them ahead in your survey based upon some condition or conditions. Use Skip/Disqualify Logic!

 Should I use Page Logic or Skip Logic?

Page Logic and Skip Logic can often be used to accomplish the same end goal, but depending on the scenario one or the other will allow you to meet your goal in a significantly more efficient manner. 

Use Page Logic to conditionally show groups of questions based on a previous answer. Page Logic allows you to efficiently set up logic for groups of questions. Instead of going through the steps for setting up logic on question after question, you can move all questions with the same logic rules to a single page and set up the logic on the page.

Use Skip/Disqualify Logic for a scenario like the following: If a respondent answers one question a certain way and you don't want them to see anything else on the survey after that. Skip/Disqualify Logic is best kept to a minimum. It can get pretty confusing to get right if there are too many jumps happening in your survey.

 What logic operator should I use?

Alchemer offers 18 operators to help you create your logic conditions. While some of these operators are quite straightforward, others can be a bit tricky. Knowing how to use specific operators and which questions they work best with can help you build efficient logic conditions and help you avoid a headache! Learn how each logic operator should be used and which questions are best suited for each operator!

 Why is the question that I want to use for my logic condition not available in the dropdown menu?

Most likely this is a compatibility issue. Certain question types are not compatible as a source for logic conditions. You will want to review our lists of compatible questions for Question Logic and Page Logic to make sure that you are using an appropriate question.

In certain cases, a question is compatible as a source for logic conditions, but a page break is required in order for that question to be available as a condition.

 Why is the logic operator that I want to use is grayed out?

This is expected behavior in many cases -  it is in indication that some logic operators are not compatible due to one of the following reasons:

  • The logic operator is not compatible with the source question type. For example, if you are using a Radio Button question for your logic condition, you will not be able to use the contains operator which searches a string of text for a specific case-sensitive piece of text. Learn more about logic operators.
  • The logic operator is compatible with the question type, but a page break is required in order to be able to build the logic condition. This will always be the case if you are using negative operators such as is not answered. Alchemer does not know that a question is not answered until the survey page is submitted - only at that point can the logic condition be evaluated. Try adding a page break between the source question and the question you are wanting to trigger to make these operators available.

 Why is my question logic not working?

Often this is due to customized reporting values. Alchemer logic is based on the reporting values that are assigned to your answer options. If you have identical reporting values for any two or more answer options and are basing logic on one of those, your follow up question will be triggered by any answers that share a common reporting value.

 Can I set up logic based on the number of answers selected?

Looking to set up logic based on the number of options selected in a checkbox question? For example, respondents who select 4 or more options are jumped to a given page. And respondents who select less than 4 options are jumped to another page. Using the answer count merge code you can store how many options were selected and then set up logic based on this value! 

Learn how in our tutorial on Setting Up Logic Based on Number of Checked Options.  

 Why does my page logic not work in preview and test modes?

To allow you to easily be able to preview all pages on your survey, Preview Mode defaults to Ignore Page Logic. If you want to test your survey fully with page logic enabled, make sure to disable the default behavior under your preview Settings.

 Should I use "Hide this Question by default" setting?

When setting up question logic you may notice an option to Hide this question by default. While it is very tempting to use this option when setting up question logic, this option is not only not necessary, (learn more) but can cause unexpected behavior when used in conjunction with our built-in logic tools. As a general rule, we discourage using this option with anything other custom scripting.

 Can I apply logic conditions in bulk?

Logic cannot be added in bulk. Having said that, if you want to show all questions on a given page based on the same condition, you can apply the logic condition to the survey page, rather than to each question individually. This will save time and will be much more efficient.

 I want to use negative logic conditions, is there anything I should be aware of?

Using negative logic conditions, such as is not exactly equal to, is not one of the following or is not answered, can be very useful when building logic or filters. Negative logic conditions can save you time since, in many cases, negative conditions can accomplish the same result as positive conditions but with fewer steps.

Note: Negative logic conditions are not available if the source and target questions are both on the same page. If you want to use negative logic, make sure that the question you want to show is one a page that follows any questions included in the logic condition. Learn best practices for using negative logic conditions and check out which questions they are best used with!

 Can I base logic on the Star Rating Grid Question?

You can! But only under certain circumstances. The question must have a single column and thus a single value per row in order to set up logic.

See examples of Star Rating grid questions that will work for setting up logic and learn how to set it up in our full tutorial on Setting Up Logic on the Star Rating Grid Question.

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