Applying logic to a survey can help you define how your respondents will move through the questions. Using their answers, you can route them to a different page or hide irrelevant questions altogether. This helps shorten the survey for respondents who do not fit your criteria. There are two types of logic: question logic and page logic. Not all question types support logic. See Know when to use them. 

• Page Logic
• Question Logic
• Disqualification Logic
• Custom Variable Logic
• Piping
• Autofill

 

Page Logic

Use page logic to send respondents to specific pages in the survey.

How do I add a page logic?

1. Click Logic in the top right corner of the page name ribbon.
   
2. Hover over Page Logic and select the page where you want your respondents to go after they're done with the current page. Instead of moving users to a specific page, you can send them to the next page or to the survey end page.
   
3. Click   to save the logic.

 

Question Logic

Use if and then logic in your questions to get focused and relevant responses.

Let's say you ask your respondents to state their favorite online survey tool, but you actually want to find out what they think of Zoho Survey. First, add a multiple choice question and apply multiple logic options that direct respondents to a specific question based on their answer to this question. If respondents choose Zoho Survey, for example, they would be directed to more questions related to Zoho Survey. If they choose any other product, they would be directed to questions about why they think other survey tools are better than Zoho Survey.

How do I add a question logic?

1. In the survey builder, hover over the question you'd like to add logic to. 
   
2. Click the  button.
3. Select Add Logic. A Logic dialogue box will appear. 
   
4. Select the condition from the first dropdown.
5. Choose an answer from the Select an option dropdown list.
6. In the then dropdown list, select the related action for the answer selected.
   • If you want to take your respondents to a follow-up question, select Show.
   • To take them to another page, select Continue to page.
7. In the Select questions dropdown list, choose the question or questions where you'd like your respondent to move next. If the respondents select Continue to page, in the dropdown that follows, select Survey EndPage or Disqualification Page.
   • To add another logic option, click .

How do I delete a question logic?

1. To delete, hover over the one you want to delete and click .
2. Click Save.

How do I move a question logic?

1. Hover over the one you want to move and click .
2. In the After dropdown list, select the logic that you want it to appear after. Note: If you want to move it to before the selected logic, click After and select Before.
3. Click Move.

 

Disqualification Logic

You can also set survey disqualification logic  to identify respondents who fit your specific criteria. For example, if you want to find a few people who would like to adopt a puppy, ask a question to find out if they love pets. You can set a survey disqualification logic to those who say No and redirect them to a survey disqualification end page.   Only those who say Yes to the first question would be qualified to answer the follow up questions on puppy adoption. You can also filter your reports and choose to view only qualifying responses.

 

Custom Variable Logic

1. Hover over Custom Variable Logic and select the custom variable logic you'd like to use. The Logic dialogue box will appear.
2. Select a condition from the first dropdown list.
3. Enter a possible answer to the question next to the condition.
4. In the then dropdown list, select a related action for the answer typed.
5. In the Select questions dropdown list, select the question or questions where you'd like your respondent to go next.
6. Click Save.

Learn more about custom variables with piping.

 

Insert Variable/Piping

Personalize your survey with the Piping feature. Piping customizes questions based on variables you've added to previous questions and helps respondents feel more comfortable answering your survey. There are two ways to do this. The first is to fill in the name by taking details from the URL. The second way to personalize your survey is to use the information from the other questions.

How does piping work?

In the survey builder, click the question you want to edit and choose from the following options:

Assume that you want to add the name of the respondent in a greeting by taking details from the URL. You can perform the following steps.

• Insert a URL parameter
  1. Click a question to make edits.
  2. Edit the text in the question box.
  3. Keep the cursor next to the text and click Insert Variable.
     
  4. Click the ${param-name} parameter. The variable will be displayed in the question box. You can edit the variable name 'param-name' to anything of your choice. For example, let's change it to 'the name you want to prepopulate'.
  5. Copy the survey link and paste it into another browser tab.
  6. Add the additional parameter ?name=<the name you want to prepopulate> to the end of the URL. Now when the recipient follows the link, they will see their name in the greeting. 

 

• Insert previous responses as variables 
  1. Pipe in responses from previous questions and customize follow-up questions. For example, you can use a respondent's name in a question by first asking for the respondent's name and then inserting it later in the survey.
  2. Click the follow up question that displays the respondent's name.
  3. Keep the cursor next to the text and click Insert Variable.
  4. Click the question whose answer you want to use. The variable will be displayed in the question box. 
     
  5. Click Preview.
  6. Type a sample name in the Name question. The same name will appear automatically in the associated follow-up question. Zoho Survey supports this feature in many other places, including the Survey End Page.

 

Prepopulate/Autofill

Autofill allows you to pre-populate single-variable survey responses automatically before sending them to respondents. This helps reduce the amount of time respondents take to answer your survey. 

If for instance, you are sending out this survey to an organization and you already know the names and organizations of a few respondents, you can pre-populate the name and organization fields. 

How does autofill work?

1. Click the question to make edits.
2. Check Prepopulate answer. You can get the answer from the URL or give it an initial value:
   • To prepopulate a text box with an initial value, click Inital value in the Value from list and set the initial value of the question as desired. For example, if you prepopulate the Organization question with a responder's organization name, the survey will show the name of the responder's organization when it is loaded. 
     
   • To use data from the URL, select URL parameter from the Value from list, then enter a name for the parameter in the Parameter name box. For example, if you use name as the name of the parameter, when you send out the survey, add ?name=<the name you want to prepopulate> to the URL. When the survey loads, the name question will contain the responder's name.