How can I count the number of words in a text field in Survey123 Connect?

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm working with a form in Survey123 Connect and I would like to count the number of words entered in a text question.

My goal is to either:

* Display the word count to the user, or

* Validate the response based on the number of words entered.

I know Survey123 supports XLSForm functions like string-length () for character counts, but I’m not sure how to calculate the number of words (for example by counting spaces or using another expression).

Example:
If a user enters:
“Community mapping improves planning”

The calculated field should return 4 words.

Has anyone implemented a word count in Survey123 Connect using XLSForm functions or a calculation field? If so, could you share the expression or approach you used?

Neal_t_k · Answer

Not sure there is a way to do this with built in formulas as there is not split function,  there is a substring function but it only works with static number of character places.

However if all your users will be logged in you could implement a javascript to count words.

Something like this could work (not the best at javascript but the /\s+/  looks for spaces and splits on that, then counts the splits).  On the javascript tab:

function countWords(str) {
  return str.trim().split(/\s+/).length;
}

In the calculation field for your word count question (${text_question} being the question with the sentence you want to count words in):

pulldata("@javascript", "functions.js", "countWords", ${text_question})