Piping Answers Into Questions

Answer piping pulls a respondent’s earlier answer into the wording of a later question, so your survey feels personal and conversational. For example, if someone selects “Basecamp” as their favorite product, a later question can read “What do you like most about Basecamp?”

How Piping Works

When you insert a pipe, SurveyMethods adds a placeholder in the form {{ Q1 }}, where the number matches the question you want to pull from. As each respondent answers the survey, the placeholder is replaced with their own answer. If a respondent skips the referenced question, the placeholder is simply removed.

Which Questions You Can Pipe From

Piping works best with question types that capture a single, readable value. You can pipe answers from:

Question Type	Notes
Multiple Choice	Pipes the selected option
Dropdown	Pipes the selected option
Single Textbox	Pipes the text entered
Comments Box	Pipes the text entered

Inserting a Pipe

Open your survey in the editor and select the question you want to personalize.
In the question text field, click the piping button (the { } icon) beside the text.
Choose an earlier question from the Insert piped answer menu.
The placeholder is added to your text. Position it wherever you like within the wording.

Important Rules

Page 2 and later only. Piping is available from the second page onward, since there must be an earlier answer to pull from. Organize your survey into multiple pages so answers are captured before they are referenced.
Backward references only. You can only pipe from questions that come before the current one. Forward references are not allowed.
Answered questions. If the source question is left blank, the placeholder disappears in the respondent’s view.

Tips

Preview your survey and answer the source question to confirm the piped text reads naturally.
Piping is a paid feature. If the piping button is locked, you’ll be prompted to upgrade your plan.

Need help? Browse more articles in the Survey Creation section.