Validating an answer is a really useful way of ensuring the information provided by your respondent meets an expected format, value range, or number of selections.
Validation can be used on the following Question Types:
- Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers
- Comment/Essay Box
- Single Text Box
- Multiple Text Boxes
- Continuous Sum
Activating Validation
To activate validation on a question, tick the box next to "Validate answer format", when creating or editing the question. The tickbox is located below the content areas for questions and answers.
Validating Multiple Choice Questions
Select the relevant option in the Validate answer format section when creating or editing your question.
| At least |
Requires a minimum number of answers |
| At most |
Requires a maximum number of answers |
| Exactly |
Requires an exact number of answers |
| Range |
Requires a number between the minimum and maximum specified |
| All |
Requires all answers to be selected |
Validating Text Questions
Text questions have a different set of validation criteria. SmartSurvey can automatically check email addresses and numbers for the correct formatting, as well as validating the number of characters or words provided for an answer.
Validating numbers by amount of digits
To validate a number by an amount of digits, set the range to be between 1 (then an amount of zeros which is the required length minus 1) and an amount of 9s equal to the desired length. so, for a 7-digit number it shoiuld be between 1000000 and 9999999. This requires that any leading zeros are removed.