topic Re: 'select_multiple' to select groups, and default choices within those groups in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

'select_multiple' to select groups, and default choices within those groups

CyndyJBresloff — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 21:48:55 GMT

I have a survey123 design that I'm struggling with getting to work the way I envision. This survey begins with a select_multiple question, the answers to which drives which group(s) get displayed in the rest of the survey. Each selected group has associated with it a set of yes/no questions. The groups' chosen display from the select_multiple choices as expected. The problem is: I want all choices in the selected groups to default to no (as it speeds up time for my users in the field) and I can't seem to make that happen. What happens is, only the first group encountered in the XLS form gets defaulted to the 'no' values. All groups have all choices set to be 'no' in the default field of the form. Why are the subsequent group's default choices being ignored, and what can I try?

Re: 'select_multiple' to select groups, and default choices within those groups

ChristopherCounsell — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 22:03:24 GMT

This was a known issue where default values don't appear when questions are hidden by relevancy, as the values are loaded when the form loads.

You can use a calculation instead e.g.

if(selected(${main_select}, 'group1'), 'no', '')

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/setting-a-default-value-on-a-field-with-a-relevant/td-p/851171

Re: 'select_multiple' to select groups, and default choices within those groups

DavidSolari — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 22:13:09 GMT

The "body::esri:visible" column should behave like the relevant column, but hiding and showing data with this column shouldn't clear out data. Give that a try and let us know how it goes, I've only seen this in the docs and never in practice.

Re: 'select_multiple' to select groups, and default choices within those groups

ChristopherCounsell — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 22:16:47 GMT

I believe using the bind will fill the non relevant groups with the default no values. This might be an issue later if these values should be empty.

Re: 'select_multiple' to select groups, and default choices within those groups

CyndyJBresloff — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 14:50:37 GMT

I have tried the suggestions above, and nothing seems to work. I even broke out the select_multiple to select_one(s) and that also did not work (and I'd prefer not to do the survey that way).

If someone could take a look at my XLS file and see if anything is terribly amiss, I'd appreciate it. I've tried a lot of minor variations on this, to no avail.

(using Survey123 Connect v. 3.23.48)