How question data is represented in the dataset

Refer to this document to learn how complex questions appear in a dataset.

Single Choice Questions

A Single Choice question has a fixed set of answers. When a member answers the question, they can only select one answer from the set of answers.

Single Choice data is defined as an enum data type, and the value is the answer ID of the question.

When a Single Choice question has an Other/Specify option, the answers are included as values in the type field indicating the option was selected, but not the text the member entered. If the question has more than one Other/Specify answer, then each Other/Specify answer is assigned its own column in the dataset.

Figure 1. Single Choice questions

Figure 2. Single Choice questions with an Other/Specify option

Multiple Choice questions

A Multiple Choice question has a fixed set of answers. When the member answers the question they can select more than one answer at the same time. Therefore, each answer is either selected or not.

Multiple Choice data is defined as a set data type and the values are the options the member selected.

When a Multiple Choice question has an Other/Specify option, the answers are included as values in the type field indicating the option was selected, but not the text the member entered. If the question has more than one Other/Specify answer, then each Other/Specify answer is assigned its own column in the dataset.

Figure 3. Multiple Choice questions

Figure 4. Multiple Choice questions with an Other/Specify option

Single Choice Grids

Single Choice Grid questions appear as rows and columns. When a member answers the question, they can only select one answer for each row.

The data type for the grid row in the dataset is defined by the version of the platform the question was created in:

Version	Data type definition
Community	Each grid row has a column in the dataset. All the grid rows in the question share the same data type.
Sparq 1	Each grid row has its own data type. The values for a dataset column are different for each row in the question.

Figure 5. Single Choice Grid questions

Multiple Choice Grids

Multiple Choice Grid questions appear as rows and columns. When a member answers the question, they can select more than one answer for each row at a time. Therefore, each column in the row is either selected or not.

Multiple Choice data is defined as a set of enum data type values which are a set of GUIDs.

Figure 6. Multiple Choice Grid questions

Allocation Questions

Allocation questions appear only as rows. When answering the question, members use a text field to enter a value for each row.

Each row in the question has a dataset column. The data type of these columns is a number.

Rank Order

Rank Order questions appear only as rows. When a member answers the question, they typically rank the set of answers from highest to lowest.

Each row in the question has a dataset column. The data type for the column is an enum. The value for the dataset column will depend on the version of the platform that was used to author the question.

Version	Value
Community	The available range of numbers in sequential order.
Sparq 1	An answer ID.

Highlighter

At this time, you can cannot use datasets resources to get records for Highlighter questions. For more information, see Create a Highlighter question.

Image upload

At this time, you can cannot use datasets resources to get records for Image Upload questions. For more information, see Create an Image Upload question.

Text instruction

Instruction text does not appear in the datasets payload because it does not collect data. For more information, see Create a Text and Image element.

Parent topic: Datasets