Error in Survey123 form - quote symbol

Question

Hello,

I'm hoping someone out there knows what's going on. I have a survey form with a question with pull down choices. Among the choices are quote symbols (") to designate inches.

When I first created the form (some time ago), there was a change in how Survey123 handled those symbols. I had to change something but now I can't remember what. 😞

Regardless, I had somehow got everything to work. But now it is not working again.

I'm actually updating the addresses in the database, but a few records, for whatever reason I can't because there's an error in the form. Attached is a picture of the error I get and here's the text of the error:

Error: Initializing form...
Error: Could not load input field value with name: /MtV_Evaluation_2020_04/_structure/vent_screens and value: mesh_screen_<=_1_8"

Does anyone know how I can fix it? Is there a way to fix it?

Picture1.png

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Anonymous User · Answer

Hi @PetronilaMandeno,

Taking a look at your xlsx file, I can see that the name column in your choice sheet contains " ' < > = characters for some of the choices. These should be avoided in the name column, as well as others such characters as ~ ` ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) + - / etc.

With 3.11, these will cause issues in the field app and web app, and also be a problem in most database programs, as this will also cause issues when used as domain names or lookup values.

In 3.12 beta (the next release due in Q1 2021), we have made improvements to choice lists to improve the speed and stability of large choice lists, and provide several other ways to update and implement lists into your surveys. These improvements will resolve some issues when invalid characters are used in the name column, especially in unquoted csv files, however will not resolve all your issues with those characters. Please take a look at the latest Early Adopter Community announcement and documentation for more information.

Regards,

Phil.

PetronilaMandeno · Answer

Attached is the survey form (xlsx). I've come up with a work around (don't edit it!), but for future use, is there a list a characters I should just not use?

form.xlsx

Anonymous User · Answer

Hi @PetronilaMandeno,

The problem is due to unsupported characters in the name field of the choice list (or pulldata() csv). You need to remove these for it to load successfully. When it comes to CSV files, double quotes delimit strings that contain commas. Excel automatically puts these into a CSV when you save it. However if your CSV contains double quotes within the string, these will break the parsing of the file.

Can you provide your xlsx file and any CSV files from media folder, so we can take a closer look.

Regards,

Phil.