Surveys often include lists of brands, statements, response options (scale points), etc. Sometimes, lists of brands or response options need to be used over and over again within the same survey. Discover saves all lists of response options for your survey and lets you select from this list when creating new questions. Be aware that if you update a list, all questions using that list will be updated.
Dynamic Lists are customized lists of brands, statements, response options, etc. that are built "on-the-fly" based on the answers that a respondent gives or that are built based on randomization or other user-defined instructions. (Some researchers refer to this as piping.)
Source List
The first thing you must do when creating a dynamic list is to select a source list. Only items from the source list can be displayed in the dynamic list. A source list needs to be a regular list, it cannot be another dynamic list.
Instructions
All dynamic lists start out empty. Instructions are then used to determine which list items from the source list are included in the dynamic list. See List Functions for all of the instructions that are available. Multiple instructions can be used to modify the list. A dynamic list can never include the same list item twice. If a particular list item is already in the list then it will not be added again by a list instruction.
When list items come into a dynamic list they retain the list item number specified in the source list. For example, if "Blue" is the third item in the source list then it has a list value of 3. If it were to be included as the first item of a new dynamic list then its value is still 3 behind the scenes. This helps keep things straight when analyzing the results of the survey.
If a dynamic list ends up with no items the question that it is associated with is skipped. This can also happen in some situations if there is only one item in the list. For example, imagine a single select question with a dynamic list of only one item. Since there is no other choice for the respondent to make, that item is selected automatically and the question is not shown to the respondent.
Example #1
Let's assume that you want respondents to select all the colors they would consider when purchasing a car. You then want to create a follow up question that asks them to select their favorite color by showing them only the colors they selected in the prior question. Consider a question Q1 that asks respondents to select all the colors they like. Here is the list of colors that could be displayed in a multiple response select question:
1.Red
2.Black
3.Blue
4.Green
5.White
6.Yellow
7.Silver
This list will get a default name such as "Q1List". You might also choose to rename this list something like "ColorsList" so that it is easier to remember when using in other questions.
A follow up question could now be used to ask the respondent which of all the colors they selected in the prior question is their favorite. This is done by creating a select question and choosing "New Dynamic List" in the "Response Options" drop down. A source list must then be selected. In this case you should select "Q1List" since you want to display any items that were selected from this list.
You must now enter one or more instructions to build the dynamic list. In this case we want to build a dynamic list that contains only the items that were selected in Q1. Clicking on the "?" icon brings up a list of instructions that are available. One of those instructions is AIC and stands for "Add If Chosen". Therefore this instruction:
AIC(Q1)
will bring in all of the items that were selected in Q1. Let's assume that Blue, White, and Silver were selected. The resulting dynamic list would then look like this:
3. Blue
5. White
7. Silver
Notice that the original list item numbers from the source list are preserved. This is important to keep track of the results in the respondent data record.
Multiple instructions can be used together to further modify the list. For example:
AIC(Q1)
RANDOMIZE()
The first instruction would bring in all of the items selected in Q1. The second instruction would then randomize all of the items. The end result might be something like this:
7. Silver
3. Blue
5. White
Example #2
Let's assume that you wanted to have respondents rate multiple brands. You would then like to display the brands they gave a high rating to (4 or more) in a follow up question. In addition, you want to display a maximum of only 5 brands and you want those 5 to be displayed in random order. To do this first create a grid question named "Q1". For the "Row Labels" enter in a list of brands:
1.Brand A
2.Brand B
3.Brand C
4.Brand D
5.Brand E
6.Brand F
7.Brand G
8.Brand H
Rename this list "BrandsList". Then enter a list for "Column Labels" like this:
1.1
2.2
3.3
4.4
5.5
This will produce a grid question with brands as row labels and the numbers 1-5 as column labels.
Now create a select question with a dynamic list showing only the brands rated 4 or greater. For "Response Options" select "New dynamic list" and then select "BrandsList" as the source list. For the instructions enter the following:
AIG(Q1, 3)
RANDOMIZE()
ListMax(5)
The first instruction brings in all of the brands that are rated greater than 3. Assuming brands A, C, D, F, G, H were all rated 4 or 5, the result of the AIG instruction would be:
1. Brand A
3. Brand C
4. Brand D
6. Brand F
7. Brand G
8. Brand H
After the Randomize instruction is called the result might be something like:
7. Brand G
4. Brand D
1. Brand A
3. Brand C
8. Brand H
6. Brand F
Finally, any additional brands after the first 5 are removed with the ListMax instruction.
7. Brand G
4. Brand D
1. Brand A
3. Brand C
8. Brand H
For a full list of available instructions see List Functions.