topic Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Teresa_Blader — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 17:20:01 GMT

Hi! I've got a working report template, but I have some text responses that I only want to appear when relevant. My issue is the input is a number and so when it's empty, the report still evaluates it as a zero, but zero is also a valid input and I need a different message for a null/empty field vs >=0.

${if NitrateResult == "" || NitrateResult == null} evaluates as true in the report even if the user actually entered in zero. And the reverse, if the field is empty: ${if NitrateResult >=0 && NitrateResult <0.5} evaluates as true even though the user didn't enter in 0.

I'm wondering how to tackle this so both messages don't appear when the field is empty or zero which is what is happening now:

${if NitrateResult == "" || NitrateResult == null}Not Reported ${/}${if NitrateResult >=0 && NitrateResult <0.5}Your nitrate results were under detection. This means that your water is below the Health Risk Limit of 10 mg/L (milligrams per liter) for nitrate. ${/}

I've tried ${if NitrateResult != "" && NitrateResult != null && NitrateResult >=0 && NitrateResult <0.5}, but Survey123 just errors and fails to fetch the report:

${if NitrateResult == "" || NitrateResult == null}Not Reported ${/}${if NitrateResult != "" && NitrateResult != null && NitrateResult >=0 && NitrateResult <0.5}Your nitrate results were under detection. This means that your water is below the Health Risk Limit of 10 mg/L (milligrams per liter) for nitrate. ${/}

This prevents both messages from appearing when the user enters 0 or nothing, but the second message doesn't appear when the user enters zero, which is what I'm after:

${if NitrateResult == "" || NitrateResult == null}Not Reported ${/}${if NitrateResult >0 && NitrateResult <0.5}Your nitrate results were under detection. This means that your water is below the Health Risk Limit of 10 mg/L (milligrams per liter) for nitrate. ${/}

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

TylerGraham2 — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 19:47:56 GMT

You might try is putting parenthesis around each equation in the "if" statement. When to use parenthesis is a report template "if" statement is very poorly documented, but sometimes it needs to be done. In my case it was when trying to check if a choice was selected. If I didn't use the parenthesis like so: ${if (Pile_Activity | selected:"Replacement") || (Pile_Activity | selected:"Removal")} it wouldn't work.

For your last snippet, you might try:

${if (NitrateResult >0) && (NitrateResult <0.5)} and see if that works.

Alternately, if you can combine results for 0 and null, you might try doing some template math. I had a report where I wanted to have it fill in 0 if the value was null or empty and I couldn't get the if statement to work. I also recall it not working when 0 was entered as a value. I worked around it by doing some math ${int_field + 0} which adds 0 (in the report not the database) to everything in the field, including nulls and empty values which converts them to 0 and doesn't change a value (e.g. 0.5 + 0 = 0.5).

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Teresa_Blader — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:18:29 GMT

Sadly parentheses did not help.

So to clarify, everything "works" without parentheses. It's just that ${ ... == ''} and ${ ==null} and ${ ... ==0} are all considered the same.

The report sees empty, null, and zero the same. But I think zero and null/empty are different.

So whether I do:
${if (NitrateResult >0) && (NitrateResult <0.5)}
${if NitrateResult >0 && NitrateResult <0.5}

... both work fine either way and behave the same.

The issue is even if the user entered nothing, and the cell is empty, the report or the database still sees it as zero and returns the related expressions as true.

So I DONT want it to add zero to anything, I just want it to believe the database that if the cell is null - it is null and not zero. And if it's zero, then its not null or empty.

Right now if the answer was 0, the report sees that as the same as null or empty

If there is no answer, the report sees that as the same as 0

So I have no way to distinguish a response of 0 from a response of null.

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

TylerGraham2 — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:30:06 GMT

It might be time to report it to esri, if you haven't already. I was able to work around it in mine because in my case null was a proxy for 0, but since you can't operate on that assumption, you need it to recognize the difference, and I think that will be esri's job.

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Neal_t_k — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:42:36 GMT

Have you tried something like this, not sure it will work any different given your iterations above but worth a shot.

${if NitrateResult} Text Here ${/}

${if NitrateResult == ""} Text Here ${/}

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/browser/analyze-results/featurereport-conditionalelements.htm

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Neal_t_k — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 21:11:59 GMT

Or possibly this, again not sure, but worth a shot:

${if NitrateResult != "" && NitrateResult < 0.5} Your nitrate results were under detection... ${/} ${if NitrateResult == ""} Not Reported ${/}

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Teresa_Blader — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 22:08:23 GMT

Thanks! I did try this ${if NitrateResult} {/} wrapping. Sadly, it still treats 0 as null or empty. 😭 I DONT GET IT!!

however using ${if NitrateResult} {/} was helpful to help clean up my report.

And it did remove the issue where if the user typed in 0 it would show both the == "" || == null and the >= 0 expressions. So now it just shows Not Reported.

So a survey response of null and zero are still treated the same, before ${if NitrateResult} {/} is evaluated. The survey however does store the zero or null as entered into the form.

${if NitrateResult == "" || NitrateResult == null} Not Reported ${/} ${if NitrateResult} ${if NitrateResult >= 0 && NitrateResult < 0.5} Your nitrate results were under detection... ${/} ${if NitrateResult >= 0.5 && NitrateResult < 3} You had detectable levels ... ${/} ${if NitrateResult >= 3 && NitrateResult < 10} Though your nitrate results... ${/} ${if NitrateResult >= 10} Your nitrate results meet or exceed ... ${/}${/}

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Teresa_Blader — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 22:20:05 GMT

For some reason including this expression causes the report to error. It just fails to fetch. I've tried it a few times. I've double checked typos. It just doesn't like != "" or something!

if NitrateResult != ""

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Neal_t_k — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 02:21:49 GMT

@Teresa_Blader Ok thinking outside the report here. Can you still modify the form/layer. What if you did the calculation/conditon in the form itself.

Calculated field: If(${NitrateResult})='','Not Reported', if(${NitrateResult}>=0 and ${NitrateResult}<0.5,'Text',if${NitrateResult}>=0.5 and ${NitrateResult}<3,'Text2',if(${NitrateResult}>=3 and ${NitrateResult}<10,'Text3','Text4))))

Also might have to do something like this for the first if: if(string-length(${NitrateResult})=0,......

Then just call the calculated field in the report.

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

abureaux — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:02:42 GMT

Have you considered adding a calculate to your Survey123 Excel to give you a non-zero output. Basically, add the logic you are doing in the Feature Report could be added to S123 instead. That would handle 0 and null.

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Teresa_Blader — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:31:52 GMT

That was where we started originally actually, but then these giant paragraphs of interpretations and recommendations are getting stored into the database which we're not interested in doing so I'd really like to find a way to still just keep those in the report and not in the database. Right now the survey itself brings in those as notes that aren't stored in the database.

I appreciate the idea though!

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Teresa_Blader — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:34:14 GMT

What would that look like? Like if the user inputs 0 have the survey change it to -1 or something?

I'd really like the keep zero as a valid response in the database and it not be seen as null in the report.

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

abureaux — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 16:50:33 GMT

Honestly, it could look like whatever you'd like.

And I agree. The laboratory result should remain as-is. You would have separate field that would be used exclusively for the Feature Report formatting. For example, you could so something like:

Result	Outcome
empty	A
0	B
>=0 && <0.5	C

Then in your Feature Report, you would use something like ${if calculate_field="A"}Not Reported.${/}

Just one note if you try this, use string-length() to test for an empty field. A string-length of 0 means the field is empty.

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Neal_t_k — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 17:06:12 GMT

@Teresa_Blader This is the same concept as I explained previous, but instead of a paragraph, you are just using a placeholder for your text. Then applying the conditions again in the report to put in your text..

Re: Survey123 Report Syntax Issues with Zeros vs Null/Empty

Teresa_Blader — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 17:07:04 GMT

Oh gotcha!

That might be the best way to tackle it, kind of similar to the other idea from @Neal_t_k , but just not including the whole paragraph of text. Or maybe at a minimum I have a letter designation if it is 0 in the survey so I don't have to notate all the ranges for all the questions.

Granted the idea of adding a whole new field for all 20 of my lab result fields just to store a code is kinda bleh haha