How do I pipe / hide / mask columns in a Grid question based on a previous Choice question? (Power Surveys)

Tip: Are you using scripting with power surveys to pipe/hide/mask answer options from one question to another question? You can now do this in surveys with no need for scripting. For more information, see Carry Forward Answers.

The terms pipe, hide and mask are used interchangeably. The common goal is to show options based on a previous question. We will use the word mask throughout this article.

The question which you would like to reference will be referred to as the previous question. The question that will be masked will be referred to as the masking question.

This script will work in the following question types:

• Choice Question to Grid Question - Columns

Previous Question Type	Masking Question Type
Single Choice Questions (standard and visual) Multi Choice Questions (standard and visual)	Single Choice Grid Columns (standard and visual) Multi Choice Grid Columns (standard and visual) Single Choice Card Sorts: columns=categories Single Choice Magnetic Boards: columns=boards Multi Choice Magnetic Boards: columns=boards

Detailed Steps

Note: Make sure that the options in the previous question and in the masking question have the same number of items and are in the same order.

1. Copy the script for the appropriate case from below.
2. Select the masking question/page in the Questionnaire Tree.
3. In the Scripting section of the masking question/page, click Edit Scripts.
4. Paste the script into the On Load tab.
5. Change Q_MASKING to the name of your masking question/page.
6. Change Q_PREVIOUS to the name of your previous question.
   Note: this can appear twice in the script depending on the case.
7. Change -1 to item numbers you want to show all the time (separated by a comma if there are multiples). E.g. 'None of these' option. If you do not have any items to show permanently, leave it as is.
   Note: the item number represents the position of the item, it is not the precode.
8. Click Save.
9. Validate and test your survey.

Script

/*
Script Name: How do I pipe / hide / mask columns in a Grid question based on a previous Choice question? (Power Surveys)

To ensure your script works as expected, always copy the original script from the script library found in the support portal. Failure to use the most up to date script from the script library may cause unexpected results. 
*/
 

Case	Script
Show selected answers from previous question	ShowColumns (Q_MASKING, ArrayUnion(GetSelectedIndexes(Q_PREVIOUS), new int[] {-1}));
Show unselected answers from previous question	ShowColumns (Q_MASKING, ArrayUnion(ArrayDiff(GetAllIndexes(Q_PREVIOUS), GetSelectedIndexes(Q_PREVIOUS)), new int[] {-1}));