Filtering Survey Results

Filters let you focus your analysis on a specific segment of respondents, such as people who chose a particular answer or completed the survey within a date range. In SurveyMethods you build filters as rules on the Analyze screen.

Adding a Rule

Open your survey and click the Analyze tab.
In the side menu, open Criteria and select the Rules tab.
Click New rule to open the Add New Rule dialog.
Choose a Filter Type, set its options, and click Add.

Your results, charts, and counts update to show only the respondents that match.

Filter Types

Filter Type	What it narrows by
Question & Answer	Respondents who gave specific answers to a question
Collector	Responses that came from selected collectors
Completeness	Completed responses only, or partial responses only
Time Period	Responses submitted between a start and end date
Response Metadata	IP address, first/last name, or custom fields

For Question & Answer, pick a question and check the answers to include. Open-ended questions instead let you enter matching words and choose a match type: Any Word, All Words, or Exact Phrase. Matrix, ranking, and file upload questions offer options suited to those types.

For Response Metadata, the name, IP, and custom field boxes match on text they contain, so a partial value is enough.

Combining Rules

You can add several rules at once. They combine with AND logic, so a respondent must match every active rule to appear in your results. For example, a Collector rule plus a Time Period rule shows only responses from that collector within those dates.

Managing Rules

Each rule in the Rules list has a toggle to turn it active or inactive without deleting it, so you can quickly test different views. Use the menu (three dots) on a rule to Edit or Delete it. Rules are saved with the report you are viewing, so they stay in place when you return.

For a broader overview of the Analyze screen, see Analyzing Survey Results.

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