Hi all,
In my survey, respondents are supposed to do the following steps: 

Step 1) report max. 4 trips from 6 purposes: W,G,N,L,S,T; and if they indicate they do all WGN activities, then report 3 trips for WGN and 1 trip randomly out of LST; but if they do NOT more than 2 types of WGN, then there will be more than 1 trip out of LST to ensure max. 4 trips and the number of trips is as many as possible. – Thanks to Joffm’s help, this part is well implemented.

Step 2) a question asking if they would choose any listed new modes.

Step 3) a question asking if they would switch their current mode for their different purposes in step 1 to new modes they just chose. As they reported max. 4 trips in step 1, so in step 3 there will be max. 4 questions (picture below shows an example).I was wondering, can there randomly be only 1 question out of those max. 4 questions? What I have done is listing all possible combinations of step 1, and write down their equations. I planned to use IF-Statements for each question in step 3. But I was wondering is there any efficient method?
 The lss.file is attached.
Thank you for any help you can provide! 

Version: 3.27.35
Regards,
Xueting

Quick idea:
Randomize the question by entering the same randomization group name to all.
As relevance equation you may sum up the relevance status of all "other" questions and say something like "sum<1"
Like
Q1: sum(Q2.relevanceStatus,Q3.relevanceStatus,...)<1
Q2: sum(Q1.relevanceStatus,Q3.relevanceStatus,...)<1
Not really tested, Just try.
Of course added to the existing relevance equation (if(strpos...)

As usual you find "relevanceStatus" in "Access to variables" in the manual.

Joffm

 

The method works! Such a smart way!

Thanks a lot and have a nice evening.
Xueting

The logic and effect of this set of relevance equations are truly surprising and interesting to a coding beginner

Hi Joffm,
Here comes a new question.

Because the total number of those questions is not big enough (only , there is a consequence after randomly showing 1 question here: sometimes not all trips that have been reported would show in this part (step 3). Sometimes 4 trips are all involved, which is good, but sometimes 3 or even 2 trips involved. The ideal case is 2 (8/4=2) questions for each trip if 4 trips reported.

I was wondering is it possible to control the number of questions for each trip that would randomly show to achieve the ideal situation?

Thanks,
Xueting

Sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about.

If it is related to the "sum(....relevanceStatus,...) " equation, of course you can change the comparison.
Set it to <2, >4, or to a calculation like ==strlen(Q123)

Sorry, without a real survey and a proper explanation, I can't say more.

Joffm


 

Hi Joffm,

Thank you for your reply.

The lss. file is attached. I'd like to explain by the following example.

Step1) 4 trips from 6 purposes were randomly selected: ABCF stand for: WGNT
 
Step2) s1-s8: questions asking if they would choose any listed new modes.
 
Step3) Switch 1- switch 8: questions asking if they would switch their current mode for their different purposes in step 1 to new modes they just chose.
 

Because "sum(....relevanceStatus,...) " equations were used to let the 1 out of 4 switch questions (for WGNT) randomly show after each "s1-8"questions,
so we got:
Switch1-for T
Switch2-for N
Switch3-for W
Switch4-for N
Switch5-for T
Switch6-for W
Switch7-for N
Switch8-for T

In summary,
for W -  Switch3,6
for G  -  No show
for N  -  Switch2,4,7
for T   -  Switch 1,5,8

Here no switch questions for G, this is what I said "sometimes not all trips that have been reported would show in this part".

The ideal situation is, 2 questions randomly show for each WGNT. Wondering is it possible?

I hope I've made it clear. Thank you for your attention!

 
Regards,
Xueting
 

Hi,
you wanted to have a random selection

can there randomly be only 1 question out of those max. 4 questions?

and you got one.
And as the selection is randomly each time there is always the chance that something is never selected.
Calculate the probability. It's about 18%

Now you say

The ideal situation is, 2 questions randomly show for each WGNT. Wondering is it possible?

Two questions randomly?
You know how it works.
At the moment you sum up the relevanceStatus and show questions as long as it is less than 1.
Meaning: At the start the sum is equal 0, after the first question it is equal 1
Now it is really obvious what you have to do to get 2 random questions.

But, do you really avoid that one of the four is never displayed. Remember, it is still a random selection. But this probability is only about 1.5%

In my opinion you should revise this part of the survey.
A rough idea:
There is the string "eqGroupsFinal" like "WGNT".
By the way:
As the order of the characters is not important for the first part of your survey (there is only asked "does the strinfg contain the character?) you may randomize the order.

Now ask the
1st switch about the first character
2nd switch about the second character
3rd switch about the third character
​​​​​​​4th switch about the fourth character
​​5th switch about the fifth character
...
This way there is only one question "Switch" and you taylor the display.
1. Join the string with itself to have a string at least 6 characters long
2. Get the character by the function "substr"
3.a. Display the question text of switch 1 using a nested IF, like
"Would you switch your current mode {if(substr(string,0,1)=="A","W",if(substr(string,0,1)=="B","G",if(substr(string,0,1)=="C","N",if(substr(string,0,1)=="D","L",if(substr(string,0,1)=="E","S","T")))))} to other modes?"
3.b. Display the question text of switch 2 using a nested IF, like
"Would you switch your current mode {if(substr(string,1,1)=="A","W",if(substr(string,1,1)=="B","G",if(substr(string,1,1)=="C","N",if(substr(string,1,1)=="D","L",if(substr(string,1,1)=="E","S","T")))))} to other modes?"
...

This might be another option.

Joffm




 

Thank you Joffm very much for your time and effort!

It seems your understanding was every time 2 questions randomly show. But sorry that I didn't make it clear by saying "The ideal situation is, 2 questions randomly show for each WGNT". 

The ideal situation is still everytime only 1 question randomly show but at the same time to ensure that finally every trip purpose would appear 2 times, or at least avoid that any of the four is never displayed.

For instance, if WGNT trips were reported.
Then there would be in total 8 switch questions, and ideally 2 questions go for W, 2 for G, 2 for N, 2 for T, in stead of the former situation: 2 for W, 0 for G, 3 for N and 3 for T. Wondering is it possible？

Also thanks for your idea about using nested IF, the thing is in those switch questions there are not only the question texts itself "would you switch your...?", but also texts of information about details of reported trips using Expression Manager like {tripdistanceW.shown} (this part was omitted in the lss. file). So seems this method would not work in this situation where texts related to previous questions.

Many thanks,
Xueting

 

I showed you how you can achieve that.

One typo:
I wrote

1. Join the string with itself to have a string at least 6 characters long

Should be 8 characters.
So either you had four trips -> the string is "WGNTWGNT"; each is asked twice
Or only three trips: "WGTWGTWGT"; W and G are asked three times T two times
And so on.
Create a small sample survey and try.

Also thanks for your idea about using nested IF, the thing is in those switch questions there are not only the question texts itself "would you switch your...?", but also texts of information about details of reported trips using Expression Manager like {tripdistanceW.shown} (this part was omitted in the lss. file). So seems this method would not work in this situation where texts related to previous questions.

Of course it does.
If you have to insert an ExpressionScript value into the TRUE-part of an IF-statement, it is like this
{if(condition,"Some text "+eqCalculatedValue+" and some more text",if(...))}

Joffm

 

Hi Joffm,
Thanks a lot!
I tried but I'm not sure that I fully understand.
What I've done is
1) using lencha to make string have 8 characters.
 

2) Display the question text of switchs using a nested IF, like
"Would you switch your current mode {if(substr(string,0,1)=="A","W",if(substr(string,0,1)=="B","G",if(substr(string,0,1)=="C","N",if(substr(string,0,1)=="D","L",if(substr(string,0,1)=="E","S","T")))))} to other modes?"

3) Set the 8 switch questions in the same randomization group.

Result of one example:
4 trips WGNT, and in the end I got switch questions of NGTNTWGW, 2 for each one, which is good.

The thing is the chosen options in s1-s8 no longer show as options in the switch questions. For instance
in the following situation option 6 and 7 should show in the options of switch1.
 


Then I realized that maybe I should've let the switch question random, but let the string characters random, wondering is there any method?

The lss. file is attached, thanks again for your attention!
 

Regards,
Xueting

Additionally, a more ideal situation is not let the string characters random, but to pick an order from a list like the following for 4 trips, respondent 1 completes switch questions according to row 1, respondent 2 as in row 2, ...respondent 24 row 24, respondent 25 back to row1, respondent 26 - row2, etc. I was wondering is it possible?
 

Many thanks,
Xueting