Sign in
x
☰

Survey data loops in Protobi

Updated at 2019-10-15 20:02:04 UTC
Protobi logo icon in purple and gray.

Surveys sometime contain "loops," sub-sections of the survey that are repeated several times. This is common in product concept testing and patient case reviews:

What are survey data loops?

Loops are a sequence of repeated instructions. For example, a survey might ask a physician to answer questions for three patient cases. The survey asks questions for patient case 1, then repeats the same questions for patient case 2, etc. 

Survey flow diagram showing three patient cases (Case 1, Case 2, Case 3) with identical question sets Q1, Q2, Q3 repeated for each case. Arrows indicate sequential flow through each case's questions.

Flatten vs stack

Survey data loops can be represented as flatted data or stacked data. Protobi can represent both structures. 

Flattened data has one row per respondent, and one column per question per loop:

Spreadsheet showing flattened loop data with columns for RespondentID and multiple columns per question (B1.1, B1.2, B1.3 for patient cases). Each respondent has one row with answers spread across multiple columns.

Stacked data has one column per question and one row per respondent per loop:

Clients often ask us to stack data with flattened patient cases. Stacking can be done programmatically in the tool. Survey loops are appended vertically--similar to stacked waves of data. Data for each patient case (B1.1, B1.2, etc.) is put in a single stacked data column (B1).

Below is a PDF with a more detailed discussion...

Download

survey-loops-protobi.pdf