Piping: reusing answers

About piping

Piping is a feature in online surveys that lets you dynamically display respondents' answers, along with other information, in later questions. It works with placeholders that are automatically replaced with concrete values as the questionnaire runs — for example, the respondent's name or a previous answer.

This makes the questionnaire more personal, more context-aware and more interactive.

In QUESTIONSTAR you can reuse not only answers from the questionnaire, but also plenty of other information — such as values from contact lists, URL parameters or scores from tests — using placeholders.

You'll find the details in this article.

Placeholders for simple questions

Simple questions are those that store only a single value. They include, for example, the following question types:

• Single Choice
• Text Input (single line)
• Essay
• Dropdown Select
• Autocomplete (single choice)
• QR & Barcode Reader

Since these questions each capture only one selection or one text value, they can be referenced directly via a simple placeholder. The format is: {{QXX}}, where XX stands for the number of the respective question.

Besides the actual answer, you can also use the code value (e.g. 5 for "Very satisfied") and — if present — the text from the "other" field.

The available placeholders for simple questions:

• {{QXX}} – (Q = Question) label of the selected answer option, or the entered text/value
• {{QXX.V}} – (V = Value) code value of the answer option
• {{QXX.O}} – (O = Other) entry in the "other" field

Placeholders for multi-item questions

Multi-item questions consist of several individual elements — so-called items or rows. Among others, they include the following question types:

• Multiple Choice
• Form (several single lines)
• Matrix
• Semantic Differential
• Autocomplete (multiple choice)
• Sliders & Graphic Scales
• Ranking
• Constant Sum
• Heatmap
• File Upload

Since these question types store a separate answer or value for each item/row, the placeholder must include, alongside the question number, the row number. This lets you target a specific item.

The placeholders for multi-item questions follow the format:

• {{QXX.YY}} – (Q = Question) label of the selected answer option, or the entered text/value
• {{QXX.YY.V}} – (V = Value) code value of the answer option
• {{QXX.YY.O}} – (O = Other) entry in the "other" field

Here XX stands for the question number and YY for the number of the item or row. Example: {{Q3.2}} accesses the second item of question 3.

Using custom question IDs

Since question numbering can change while you're editing the questionnaire, placeholders with a numeric reference (e.g. {{Q1}}, {{Q3.2}}) may need to be adjusted manually. To avoid this effort and potential errors, you can assign each question a custom, unique ID — and then use that instead of the question number in the placeholder.

Here's how to assign a custom question ID:

1. 

   Select the question you want.

2. Open the Question Settings panel on the right.
3. In the "Custom ID (for JavaScript manipulations)" field, enter the ID you want.

Advantage: If you later move, insert or delete questions, the placeholder stays stable thanks to the ID assignment and doesn't need to be adjusted.

You use placeholders with a custom ID as follows:

• {{QQuestion-ID}} or {{QQuestion-ID.YY}} – (Q = Question) label of the selected answer option, or the entered text
• {{QQuestion-ID.V}} or {{QQuestion-ID.YY.V}} – (V = Value) code value of the selected answer
• {{QQuestion-ID.O}} or {{QQuestion-ID.YY.O}} – (O = Other) entry in the "other" field

Here YY still stands for the number of the item or row in multi-item questions.

Pre-filling Text Input questions with respondents' answers

In some cases you'll want to use a respondent's answer as the starting value for a later Text Input question. This is especially helpful when:

• respondents have previously phrased something they should refine or make more specific later on
• the answer serves as a reference for follow-up information
• you want to support a continuous train of thought without respondents having to re-type their earlier entries

Here's how to do it:

For single-line text input fields:

1. Click the gear icon next to the text input field to open the settings.

   

2. Enter the placeholder for the source question you want into the "Initial value" field (e.g. {{Q1}}).

For multi-line (Essay) questions:

Enter the placeholder you want into the "Initial value" field in the Question Settings.

Placeholders for URL parameters and pre-filling questions

The values passed to the questionnaire via URL parameters can be used directly in the questionnaire. To do so, place a placeholder with the parameter name in double curly braces at the point you want in the question text or answer options — for example {{name}} or {{campaign}}.

In addition, you can use URL parameters to pre-fill certain questions automatically with values. To do this, assign the relevant question a custom ID and pass the value you want in the URL in the parameter of the same name.

Further placeholder types

QUESTIONSTAR offers numerous other ways to display content dynamically in the questionnaire or insert it into notification emails. These include, among others:

Custom variables

Once all the questions that feed into the calculation of a custom variable have been answered, its value can be displayed in the questionnaire.

Placeholder: {{VXX}} – displays the calculated value of the custom variable, e.g. {{V1}}

Custom variables can be used, for example, to display the results of psychological tests, where latent constructs (such as motivation, stress level or personality dimensions) are calculated from several individual questions. This lets you give respondents personalized feedback at the end of the questionnaire.

Quotas

Using placeholders, you can display the current status of a defined quota directly in the questionnaire. This is useful, for example, to transparently tell respondents whether spots are still available — say, on registration forms for events.

Available placeholders:

• {{QUOTA.QuotaName}} – current fill level of the quota named "QuotaName"
• {{QUOTA.QuotaName.LIMIT}} – maximum number of respondents allowed to meet the quota conditions
• {{QUOTA.QuotaName.LEFT}} – remaining number of free quota spots

Loops

If you work with loops in your questionnaire — that is, repeating certain pages or questions for multiple elements (e.g. for several products, people or situations) — you can also use placeholders within or between loop iterations.

Available placeholders:

• {{L1}} – displays the current value from loop 1 (e.g. the name of the product or person the current iteration applies to). This placeholder only works within the loop.
• {{Q5.1|I1.1}} – retrieves the answer from question 5, row 1, in the 1st loop iteration (Q = Question, I = Iteration)

Scorings

Use the following placeholders to display the results of a particular test (e.g. Test 1) in the questionnaire or in emails:

• {{S1.points}} – (S = Scoring) points achieved in Test 1
• {{S1.percent-points}} – percentage of points achieved in Test 1
• {{S1.max-points}} – maximum achievable points in Test 1
• {{S1.questions}} – number of questions for which points were awarded
• {{S1.percent-questions}} – share of these questions in the overall test (in %)
• {{S1.max-questions}} – total number of questions in the test

Grades

If, in addition to the point value, you also have a grade calculated (e.g. "Very good", "Satisfactory", etc.), you can likewise display it with a placeholder:

• {{G1}} – (G = Grade) grade for the first test
• {{G2}} – grade for the second test (if present)
• ...
• {{GX}} – grade for the Xth test (if present)

This option is especially well suited to personalized feedback in learning tests, quizzes or e-learning surveys.

Contact lists & mailer

If you work with a contact list or use the QUESTIONSTAR mailer, you can access all the information stored there for the respective person via placeholders. This lets you personalize questionnaires or individually design automatically generated emails.

Typical uses:

• A personal greeting in the questionnaire ("Hi {{RESPONDENT_FIRST_NAME}}")
• Displaying location- or company-specific information
• Placing the survey link in an invitation
• Enabling the unsubscribe link (opt-out)

Placeholders for contact information in the questionnaire or mailer:

• {{RESPONDENT_FIRST_NAME}} – first name of the surveyed person
• {{RESPONDENT_LAST_NAME}} – last name of the surveyed person
• {{RESPONDENT_EMAIL}} – email address
• {{RESPONDENT_LANGUAGE}} – language (e.g. "de", "en")
• {{RESPONDENT_PERSONALIZED_ID}} – Personalized ID from the contact list
• {{CustomField}} – any custom field from the contact list (replace "CustomField" with the name of the field, e.g. {{PLZ}}, {{Firma}} etc.)

Placeholders for invitations & reminders in the mailer:

• {{SURVEY_URL}} – just the URL to the survey
• {{SURVEY_LINK}} – HTML link to the survey (e.g. with the text "Take part now")
• {{OPT_OUT_URL}} – just the URL for the opt-out link (unsubscribe from mailings)
• {{OPT_OUT_LINK}} – HTML link for the opt-out (e.g. with the text "Unsubscribe")

Double Opt-In

In double opt-in emails you can use placeholders just as in the questionnaire or in regular notification emails — for example, to play back answers a respondent has already given or to display their data from the contact list.

Available placeholders:

• Placeholders from the questionnaire: Show the respondent, for example, the email address they entered or their answers to previous questions.
• Placeholders from the contact list: If the respondent was invited from a contact list, all the fields stored there (e.g. name, company, postal code) can likewise be used via placeholders.

Additional placeholders specifically for the confirmation email in the double opt-in process:

• {{OPT_IN_URL}} – plain URL to confirm consent
• {{OPT_IN_LINK}} – HTML link with clickable text to confirm the opt-in

These placeholders let you make the opt-in process legally sound, transparent and, at the same time, personal.

Notifications

In notification emails you can insert both the answers to individual questions and — if present — the fields from the contact list via placeholders. This lets you design the email content dynamically and personally.

In addition, you can send the recipient a link to the completed questionnaire. The following placeholders are available for this:

• {{ANSWERS_URL}} – plain URL to the completed questionnaire
• {{ANSWERS_LINK}} – HTML link with clickable text to the completed questionnaire

System values

The following placeholders give you access to identifiers assigned by the system or defined in the contact list:

• {{RESPONDENT_ID}} – unique ID of the respondent — either assigned in the contact list or generated automatically by the system
• {{USER_ID}} – synonym for {{RESPONDENT_ID}} – both placeholders are interchangeable