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Protobi has a built-in quality check or "QC" tool that allows you to identify outliers and flag respondents with low quality responses.

## Open the QC dialog

Select an element and press Shift + Q + C on your keyboard to bring up the QC dialog.

You can also select the element, then go to the "Advanced" button. Scroll to find the "QC check (beta)" option.

## QC a single element

Single elements have three pre-set QC options. These checks are usually applied to numeric questions where you want to flag and cap outlier responses.

### QC checks are stored in a special element

After you add a QC check, it creates a new element called "$flags". Every time you add a new QC check, it's added to this element. 3% of respondents are flagged as Q1 > 50 and those that do not meet the criteria are shown as \[NA\].

<img src="/uploads/upload/image/5200/direct/1660044087201-1660044087201.png" alt="Horizontal bar chart for the $flags variable showing [NA] responses at 97.0% and flagged responses where 'Q1 > 50' at 3.0%, with a base of N=100." style="width: 400px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">

## QC a group

There are more QC options for a group of questions, for instance there is a preset to check for straight-liners.

### Straight-line check

Select "All children are equal (aka straightline)" to flag respondents that entered the same answer for all questions in a group.

Result:

<img src="/uploads/upload/image/5200/direct/1660044793645-1660044793645.png" alt="Horizontal bar chart for $flags variable displaying three categories: [NA] at 92.0%, 'straightline Q13' at 6.0%, and 'Q1 > 50' at 3.0%, with base N=100." style="width: 400px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">

### Remove flagged respondents

[Shift + press](https://help.protobi.com/view-access/click-to-query#Shift%20+%20Press%20to%20exclude%20$%22not%22$-3) on flagged respondents to exclude them from the sample. Then [set a permanent filter](https://help.protobi.com/edit-access/element-filters#Apply%20permanent%20filters-2) on the question to exclude the flagged responses.

## Create your own custom flags

You can define a condition to create custom flags. **Q3** asks how many Condition Y patients are on a gamma antagonist, and **S8** asks how many Condition Y patients the respondent manages.

You can set a custom condition that flags respondents that entered a greater value for **Q3** than **S8**. Custom conditions can reference any element, you can even create the QC in an element, and not include it in the condition.

###

<img src="/uploads/upload/image/5200/direct/1605148479586-1605148479586.png" alt="Quality checks dialog for Q3 showing four check options with 'If custom condition is true' checked and the condition 'Q3>S8v2' entered in the input field." style="width: 380px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">

### Javascript operators

The custom condition text box will accept conditional statements written with Javascript operators. Below is a list of to create operators you can use to create custom conditions.

Arithmetic

Comparison

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: none; border-collapse: collapse; empty-cells: show; max-width: 100%; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin-right: 350.039px; width: 679.5px;" width="324"><tbody style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><td height="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center;" width="9.876543209876543%">==</td><td style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);" width="90.12345679012346%">Equal</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><td height="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center;">!=</td><td style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Not equal</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><td height="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center;">></td><td style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Greater than</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><td height="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center;">>=</td><td style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Greater than or equal to</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><td height="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center;"><</td><td style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Less than</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><td height="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center;"><=</td><td style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Less than or equal to</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><td height="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center;">===</td><td style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Equal to, and the same data type (Identical)</td></tr><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><td height="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center;">!==</td><td style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Not identical</td></tr></tbody></table>

Logical

## Advanced support

There are complex cases where you might want to flag respondents, not limited to what's shown in this tutorial. Contact us at support@protobi.com to discuss your specific needs.

[apply the filter](https://help.protobi.com/edit-access/element-filters#Apply%20permanent%20filters-2)

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