Survey123 Data Loss Problem on Decimal Fields

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07-18-2019 11:09 AM
Status: Open
UhullGoGoGoGo
New Contributor III

Context

Different countries use different symbols as a decimal or thousands separator.

Some use a period, others a comma. Take a look:

Decimal separator - Wikipedia 

Depending on how Survey123 field app interprets these symbols, this can lead to data loss.

The problem

Supposing the expected decimal separator is a comma, Survey123 behaviour is the following:

Value typed in a surveyValue actually stored in the Geodatabase
11
1.111
1.12112
1.1231123
1,11,1
1,121,12
1,1231,123

As you can see, if the user thinks the correct decimal separator is a period or simply forgets what is the correct one, we'll end up having wrong values in the geodatabase. This is problematic.


Proposed Solution

Survey123 web interface already has the solution: it doesn't allow you to type the thousands separator.

So... bring it to the app too!