Survey Variables



The survey variables can be used to store the metadata of your survey project. This additional meta information improves data quality by providing useful context information about the respondents. A list of all survey variables used in the project and their complete characteristics can be obtained from the codebook (Documentation > Codebook), if you select Show survey variables in the Codebook.

Certain variables are only retrieved once for every participant. Thus, they will not be refreshed after a participant drops out of the survey and proceeds with it at another point. If, for example, the participant takes a survey on their desktop, then drops out and continues with it on their smartphone, the statistics will only show die participation via desktop and not via smartphone for this participant. This is true for the following variables: device_type, user_agent, participant_browser and participant_os.

Table Overview

The following table gives you an overview of the available survey variables.

Variable

Meaning

Variable

Meaning

lfdn

Unique participation ID

external_lfdn

Unique participation ID of an external survey (External Survey Start)

tester

Participant = tester (yes/no)

status

Dispositioncode (status of the participation e.g., invited)

lastpage

Page ID of the last page shown to the participant

quality

quality of the results of a survey

duration

Duration (time in seconds to finish the survey. If a respondent resumes the questionnaire after a break (disposition codes 23, 32), the duration is = ā€œ-1ā€ because a meaningful calculation is not possible.)

p_000n

URL parameter

c_000n

User-defined variables

v_000n

Project variables. The project variables are sequentially numbered for each project, beginning with v_1.

md_000n

Master data variables (only in EFS Panel installations)

ex_host

Host name based on the IP of the proxy (if available) via which the participant accesses the survey

ip_addr

IP of the proxy (if available) via which the participant accesses the survey

browser

Browser info (name, version etc.) of the participant

referer

If available, the address of the page on which the participant clicked the link to the currently accessed page. This value is set by the participant's browser

device_type

Type of the userā€™s devices (0 - desktop / 1 - mobile)

quota

Quota ID of the participant (selected by ā€œTo which quota should the participant be allocatedā€

quota_assignment

All quota IDā€™s of the participant

page_history

List of page IDā€™s in the order of the pages called up by the participant

hflip

Variable for the horizontal flip (horizontal mirroring of the answer options):

  • 0 = not flipped

  • 1 = flipped

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When a participant starts a survey for the first time, hflip is always written ā€“ regardless of whether flips are activated for the survey or not. However, the participant will only see those questions flipped for which the flipping function has been explicitly activated. Consequently, all questions, for which this function was not activated, will be displayed as set in the corresponding question regardless of the random hflip value. Information on whether the flipping function has been activated for a question cannot be found in the export of the result data. To get this information, you have to manually check in the respective question, if the flipping function has been activated.

vflip

Variable for the vertical flip (vertical mirroring of the answer options):

  • 0 = not flipped

  • 1 = flipped

Ā 

When a participant starts a survey for the first time, vflip is always written ā€“ regardless of whether flips are activated for the survey or not. However, the participant will only see those questions flipped for which the flipping function has been explicitly activated. Consequently, all questions, for which this function was not activated, will be displayed as set in the corresponding question regardless of the random vflip value. Information on whether the flipping function has been activated for a question cannot be found in the export of the result data. To get this information, you have to manually check in the respective question, if the flipping function has been activated.

output_mode

Which layout is used? HTML layout or mobile layout?

javascript

Version of the browserā€™s javascript (if configured)

flash

Version of the Flash Payer plugin (if configured)

session_id

Session ID of the participation

language

Participantā€™s language ID

cleaned

Participation was modified by data cleaning

ats

Time of survey start (absolute time stamp)

datetime

Time of the survey start

date_of_last_access

Time of the last access of the participant to the survey

date_of_first_mail

Time of the first mail sent to participant

RTS (+ page ID)

Relative time stamp for each page + page ID.
RTS (+ page ID) indicates the time in seconds that has elapsed since the survey start. Using this variable, you can determine the time a participant has spent on a page. For the calculation, you must subtract the value of RTS (+Page ID) of the previous page from the value of RTS (+Page ID) of the desired page. A calculation example can be found below.

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image-20240312-101533.png

Please note, that the order of the variables "RTS (+page ID)" in the export does not necessarily correspond to the order in which the respective participant has displayed the pages.

sid

Only in panel and master data surveys : ID of the sample that the panelists belong in.

For the SPSS export, the codes are labeled with the sample titles.

dt_send_pag_000n

Time variables of standard pages and mixed-external pages. These indicate the time in seconds elapsed since the ats until sub- mission of the respective page.

If the PGID (page ID = installation-specific ID of a questionnaire page or a dynamic element) is bigger than 99.999, the name of the variable is changed to ts_xxx, to prevent problems caused by the length of the variable name when exporting for SPSS.

rnd_pg_PGID

Random selection.

For each random selection block in the questionnaire, a variable rndPGID is created. PGID is the ID of the random selection element.

In this variable, the PGIDs of the selected pages are stored, separated by commas.

rnd_pg_PGID_x

Random order.

For each random order block in the questionnaire, variables rnd_pg_PGID_NR are created. PGID is the ID of the random order element, NR is the number of randomized subpages.

Each of these variables contains the PGID of that subpage which has been placed on the respective position in the current cycle.

Example: The PGID of the random order element is 123, the subpages have PGID 124, 125 and 126. In the questionnaire, they are displayed to a participant in the following order: 126, 124, 125. Then, you will find the following data in the export file: r123_1 = 126, r123_2 = 124, r123_3 = 125

tic

tic variable used in external survey start. The tic variable is always 32 characters long. This cannot be configured.

s_000n

Scoring variables

Device Variables

The device variables store meta information about device manufacturer and device kind (Smartphone, Tablet, Desktop, Touchscreen-Desktop etc.), browser type and more.

Variable

Meaning

Variable

Meaning

participant_browser

browser name (e.g. ā€žInternet Explorerā€œ), see codebook in the projectĀ 

participant_browser_version

browser version (e.g. ā€ž9.0ā€œ), text value

participant_os

operating system (e.g. ā€žWindowsā€œ), see codebook in the project

participant_deviceĀ 

device type

-99 Unknown
0 desktop
1 smartphone
2 tablet
3 feature phone
4 console
5 tv
6 car browser
7 smart display
8 camera
9 portable media player
10 phablet
11 smart speaker
12 wearable

participant_brand

device brand (e.g. ā€žAppleā€œ), see codebook in the project

participant_model

device model (e.g. ā€žiPhone 6ā€œ), text value

participant_isbot

bot

-99: unknown

0: regular user

1 to 281: the detected bot name of the search engine crawler

The new variables can be used in filters, triggers, exports, the detail view, Reporting+ and more.

The functionality ā€œDetect participants' device type using the user-agent informationā€ needs to be enabled in the project properties. The functionality is disabled by default.

No participant information is sent to 3rdĀ parties, all data is stored and processed in our datacenters.

Location variables

The location variables store meta information about automatic geo-location based on theĀ participantā€™sĀ IP address (e.g. estimation ofĀ the participantā€™s continent,Ā country and state)

Variables

Meaning

Variables

Meaning

participant_continent

Continent (e.g. ā€žEuropeā€œ)

-99 Unknown
1 Anonymous Proxy
2 Satellite Provider
3 Europe
4 Asia
5 North America
6 Africa
7 Oceania
8 South America
9 Antarctica

participant_country

Country (e.g.Ā ā€žUnited Kingdomā€œ), see codebook in the project

participant_region

Region (e.g. ā€ž Lancashireā€), text value

participant_city

City (e.g. ā€žLancasterā€œ), text value

participant_latitude

Latitude

participant_longitude

Longitude

The new variables can be used in filters, triggers, exports, the detail view, Reporting+ and more.

The functionality ā€œDetect participants' location using the IP addressā€ needs to be enabled in the project properties. The functionality is disabled by default.

The geo-location information is 99.8% accurate on country and continent level. The GeoIP database of Maxmind is used: Ā https://www.maxmind.com/en/geoip2-city-accuracy-comparison

In surveys created with EFS<10.6 this meta information is not available because the device type, brand data and geo location was not collected at that time.

No participant information is sent to 3rdĀ parties, all data is stored and processed in our datacenters.

The localization is based on the IP of the participant and the information provided by the Internet provider. The localization accurate to the city cannot be guaranteed.

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