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How to Filter and Analyze Subsets of Data

Apply Filters to See Subsets of Data

We provide professional subscribers a feature called Filtering which allows them to organize and view subsets of data for advanced analysis.  By creating Filters, you see only the set of responses that meet the specified criteria you set up, allowing you to display subsets and find patterns in your data. 		 

How Filtering Works 

Filtering data displays only the set of full responses that match the filter criteria. If you only want to view how a certain group of respondents answered your survey, you can use the filter tool to select exactly what criteria sets this group apart and then view only those responses that meet that criteria. 

  Example: Criteria - I want to view how those responses that selected their favorite color as 'Red' answered the survey.

 Use a Filter by Responses filter type - Show responses of people who answered question "What is your favorite color?" with answer "Red".

 This would show you only the set of data for all respondents that selected 'Red' for this question.

a_Filter Responses.gif

To Add a Filter

Click the [Filter Responses] button from your Response Summary page to open the Filter Editor.

Available Filter Types

  • Responses - Sort by how a respondent answered a question in the survey form.
  • Properties - Properties of the survey response itself, e.g. range of response submission dates.
  • Collectors  – Show responses submitted to a specific Collector link.*Only available if you have more than one Collector set up for your survey.

Filter Principles:

Filters enable you to look for specific data or patterns in your data.

1. Consider Your Filter Criteria:

For the most effective use of filtering, you will want to outline the different criteria that you will want to be able to break your data down into before you start collecting responses.  This will ensure that you have a corresponding question, property, or collector in place in your survey form or survey collector to allow you to easily view the subset of data once you have received responses.

Do you want to filter by:

  • Specific Responses (e.g. by department, gender, course, etc)?
  • Properties (e.g. Response Dates, Email Address, IP Address, Completed Response Only, etc)?
  • Specific Collectors (e.g. if you have more than one collector created for survey distribution)?
2. Design Your Survey Accordingly:

If you want to view or sort survey responses by specific questions and answer choices, then you will need to create those questions in your design. (Drop-down question types or single answer questions work best for filtering as opposed to open-ended question types.)

Likewise, if you want to sort data by collectors, you will have to create your collectors and send the links out to specific groups before hand.

3. Create One or Multiple Filters:

The Analyze page can display only ONE subset of data at a time with the filter tool.

This means that if you want to see the subset of responses that selected only "Red" as their favorite color AND also the subset of responses that selected only "Blue" as their favorite color, you will need to create two separate filters, one for each set of criteria.  If you would like to compare how those who selected "Red" answered the survey versus those who selected "Blue", you can use the Cross-Tab feature instead of the filter feature.

 If you have two criteria you would like to see in a single subset view, then you can create one filter with multiple filter criteria. For example, I would like to see all of the responses that selected either "Red" Or "Blue" as their favorite color.

Go to the next step for more detailed information on how to set this up.