topic Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123 in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Auto Increment integer using Survey123

RhondaThynne — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 18:17:07 GMT

Would it be possible to auto increment an integer field (within a Repeat) calculated from the previous entry; on the same field?

For example: during our fish surveys we can catch up to 30 fish at one site. Each fish needs be be measured and weighed and have a Fish Number. The first fish caught would be "1", second fish "2", third fish "3" etc.

So, it would be fantastic (within a Repeat) after the first fish information is entered, the survey form would auto-populate the Fish Number field with "2" and so on.

I understand there are still some bugs with Repeat's but just wondering if this would be a possibility down the road!! Even if this could be accomplished outside of a repeat, it would still be useful!!

Thank you

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

JamesBlodgett — Mon, 23 May 2016 19:39:34 GMT

Like question "Auto Increment integer using Survey123."

It would be nice to have an incremental counter (survey 1,2,3,4 ... 78) that can't be modified.
That is, first to last survey.
<<AND>>
It would be nice to have an incremental counter that CAN be modified (i.e., 1,2,3; 8,9,10, 2,3,4).
I use tree tags and use the number on the tags which are usually in order, but not always. The tags also end at 999, new tags start at 1.

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

EdZlonis — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 19:39:16 GMT

Has this functionality has been incorporated into Survey123?

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

AdrianWelsh — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 19:57:07 GMT

Ed, it looks like it has not.

Enhancement: Auto-Incrementing IDs · Issue #302 · Esri/Survey123Community · GitHub

There are a few other threads on the GeoNet about this with no real answers or deadlines.

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

JamesTedrick — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 18:28:50 GMT

Hi Nicole,

At this time, we do not have support to supply an auto-increment. Numbering for repeats might be an easier issue to address than supplying a similar auto-increment for a survey in general (where multiple people, possibly offline, collecting at the same time could cause conflicts in terms of numbering).

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

LorettaWinton1 — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 18:52:57 GMT

Even getting a numbering of repeats would be wonderful.

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

KevinBrown10 — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 19:56:07 GMT

Numbering of the the repeats within each survey would be helpful to us. For example, we conduct surveys containing repeats to capture information for each room within a subject house. We use an identifier such as RM-1, RM-2, and so on. Is is possible to auto-populate the RM-# based on the record number you are on within the repeat?

Thanks,

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

RenatoSalvaleon — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 16:33:54 GMT

I just asked this question in the blog. I agree the number is already there its just a matter of exposing it.

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

TimothyKing3 — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 23:50:09 GMT

Has there been any movement on this? It would be really handy. Doing stratigraphic profiles and crews sometimes forget to update strat #.

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

JamesBlodgett — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 14:43:08 GMT

I'd also like to see an Auto Increment integer, and have seen several requests. Not sure why ESRI has not done. Can't be too hard since other data collectors such as Trimble has this feature, for years.

Jim

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

JamesTedrick — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:14:29 GMT

Timothy, James,

We posted a blog on generating unique identifiers a bit ago in Creating 'Ticket Numbers' in Survey123 for ArcGIS . From our understanding of the request, auto-incrementing is primarily to generate a unique number. While this works when limited to one device or possibly a connected scenario, it becomes much more difficult when dealing with multiple devices, especially when disconnected- there isn't an effective way for a device to tell the others it has 'claimed' the next number and they should update. An alternate approach would be to allocate numbers to users before going out to the field by creating blank records and use the Inbox to store them.

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

KevinBrown10 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:57:43 GMT

The scenario I am interested in (and I believe others) is to have the auto-increment to occur within a repeat of a survey. I am not necessarily interested in generating a unique identifier between survey instances. For example, we often collect numerous samples at a singular location. The location identifier is populated on the main level of the survey and sample information is captured within a repeat. I would like the sample ID to be auto-generated such that I use a calculation that uses the location identifier and then appends the sample number which is equal to the record number in the repeat. For example, the series would be Location1-Sample1, Location1-Sample2, Location1-Sample3, and so on.

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

LorettaWinton1 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 19:21:02 GMT

Actually both the scenarios mentioned above would be super useful.

Scenario 1: Auto increment to get unique identifier between different survey instances. eg. Different plots, streams or whatever. eg, Plot-1, Plot-2, etc. To avoid the problem of different people perhaps having identical numbers, different crews could use a local feature like stream name, their initials or whatever, eg. YukonRiver-1, YukonRiver-2 (Where YukonRiver is some text entered in the field by a user, and it auto increments for each instance/record.) Another Surveyor on the Kuskokwim River would enter that.

Scenario 2: Auto increment repeats within each survey instance/record. Eg. at YukonRiver-1 20 fish are sampled, such that one would have {plotname-plot#-fish-fish#}. YukonRiver-1-Fish-1 and so on.

Thanks,

Lori

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

JamesBlodgett — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 19:41:25 GMT

I use tree tags, like fish tag, but would also like to be able to change the sequence.

In another company's form, Auto Increment is simple. Tree 1, 2, 3, 4, ... 21. But I can still change the number in the form, and it Auto Increments from the new number.

(e.g., Tree 1, 2, 3, 4, ... 21, 100, 101, 102, 103, ...).

So I hope there are various Auto Increment options, since I see the uses of the more complicated ones others suggest.

At present, I just need a simple Auto Increment function that is common in other e-forms.

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

KevinMitchell1 — Mon, 21 May 2018 21:31:57 GMT

Is this function still unavailable?

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

JamesTedrick — Tue, 22 May 2018 21:42:19 GMT

Hi Kaylee,

Survey123 does not support auto-incrementation in the form due to the issues of submission by multiple submitters. There are other ways to provide identifiers, see Creating 'Ticket Numbers' in Survey123 for ArcGIS.

Additionally, if a sequence of numbers needs to be pre-assigned to a collector, you can accomplish that by generating the (empty) rows before submission (with id numbers), allocate them by assigning rows to the collector(s) and then use the Inbox so that the rows are then loaded into the device for completion.

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

DougBrowning — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 18:54:15 GMT

I got this to work for repeats

In a repeat have a field with a calculate (it can be editable)

Use this formula subbing in any field in the repeat (except itself)

once(count(${RecKey}))

ref https://community.esri.com/message/787003-re-survey123-functionality-calculate-position-in-repeat-group?commentID=787003&et=watches.email.thread#comment-787003

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

JürgenBiendara1 — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 10:25:07 GMT

Hi Doug,

I'm trying to get this auto-increment working but I fail. Can you attach a sample xls-sheet that shows how to do it?

Thanks and best regards,

Jürgen

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

DougBrowning — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 16:30:42 GMT

I am not allowed to share the whole form but this should help.

Inside the repeat you would have the field you want to hold the Auto Incremented number - lets call it PointNbr. That field would have a calculation of once(count(${RecKey})). Where RecKey is any other field in the repeat. You cannot count itself so I just picked a field.

You are basically saying count up all the repeats and use that number as my Auto Increment number. The Once tells it to just do that calc when the repeat is first created. Otherwise it would constantly change when you went back to a old repeat record.

Hope that helps

Re: Auto Increment integer using Survey123

JürgenBiendara1 — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 13:48:29 GMT

Thanks Doug, I got it.

In my first attempt I missed to enter a value into the "counted" question. Now I am using a hidden field with a preset default value, which seems to make it countable.