Hi,

i have a database from an old limesurvey application server. The server is gone but i still need to export answer tables.
So i do this direct in the database but the answers in the old_survey_xxx table are codes. The text for the codes is in the answer table. When I 'decode' the answers, the result is incorrect. Example:

1 stands for "male" and 2 for "female"... but when i replace the codes in the old_survey_xxx table with the corresponding answer in the answers table it get:

Person_FirstName Person_Gender(column to decode)
Peter female
Claudia male
Johannes female

seems wrong to me. Where is the failure here? Is it a Problem, when the order of the answers had changed?

Thank you for your help,

If you don't have the lss file (or better an LSA) : you can't have a easy clean solution.

With only the data from SQL : you must update each answer code by their answer etc …

PS : if the DB is complete : why not install a new (or old) version linked to this DB ?
Then you can import data from old survey

Hi Denis,


thank you very much for your help. We followed your advice and installed a new old LimeSurvey Server and exported the files. The Problem is, that we still don't get the correct decoding for some answers (especially the answers which had changed).
Do we have to import an .lss or .lsa file into the survey before we can export the data? We have this files on an backup server.

Thank you!

lsuser3112 wrote: that we still don't get the correct decoding for some answers (especially the answers which had changed).

How you think LimeSurvey can keep old value … you must remind the old code …

Do we have to import an .lss or .lsa file into the survey before we can export the data? We have this files on an backup server.

Not necessary : i think if you only have lime_survey_orf.csv, then have an lss can help.

If you have an LSA with the old answer value : you can import it in any LimeSurvey version and export.

Hi Denis,

ok. Thank you for the help.

Best regards,