topic Prefill Question(s) in repeat with answers from previous record in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Prefill Question(s) in repeat with answers from previous record

DerrickWestoby — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 16:49:19 GMT

Good Morning,

I have a survey form for collecting samples from buildings. The samples are contained within a repeat ( ${repeat_samples} ). Within the repeat, I have fields for Building Number, Floor Number & Room Number. Since multiple samples are always taken from each room, I would like NEW samples to default to the Building, Floor and Room values entered in the previous record. This is the formula that I've tried using, but receive a dependency cycle error:
indexed-repeat(${bldg_num}, ${repeat_samples}, position(..)-1)

Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks

Re: Prefill Question(s) in repeat with answers from previous record

Anonymous User — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 23:42:45 GMT

Hi @DerrickWestoby,

I believe what you are seeing is expected, as you are using a calculation that references a question that uses the answer to calculate itself, hence the circular reference. This is generally an issue with indexed-repeat functions if you use them inside the repeat that it is referring to. For the November update, we plan to update the documentation to say that using indexed-repeat inside a repeat it refers to is not supported.

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/desktop/create-surveys/xlsformrepeats.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_F3E28755416F4A6CBD7B7D900EB9EFE6

Can you share your XLSForm and media folder so I can take a look and see if there is a better way to do what you are trying to achieve?

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Prefill Question(s) in repeat with answers from previous record

DerrickWestoby — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 23:45:29 GMT

Thanks for the response, Philip. I'm not attached to this specific way to accomplish the goal, just the goal itself. If there's another way to make a question's default answer match the input from the previous record in the repeat, I'd love to hear that!

I sent you a message with my XLS as well. Thanks for taking a look.

Re: Prefill Question(s) in repeat with answers from previous record

DougBrowning — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 15:59:57 GMT

I have only got 1 way to work but it only works on small repeats. See here https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/prepopulate-answers-in-a-repeat-with-last-values/m-p/1093928

Re: Prefill Question(s) in repeat with answers from previous record

DerrickWestoby — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 17:18:24 GMT

Thanks Doug. I may try this in a test version of the XLS, but not too fond of the javascript implementations based on experience and if you're already reporting it struggles with large surveys. The surveys I have in use with javascript running are much less stable already.