Duplication of Choices

[fisayo_fakoyede237]

Hello KoboToolbox Team. Please I greatly need your assistance.

Anytime I upload my XLS form, many of the choices appear in duplicates. This happens mostly with yes_no and likert-based questions. Whenever I resort to deleting the duplicates manually by editing in the form builder, I save the changes. Yet, in the the form preview, I get an error message simply stated as “nutr.mgt”.

I am at my wit’s end. I have tried checking how you resolved similar issue here, but none seems specific to mine. My data collection is to commence very shortly, hence I really need to get this fixed. Please help. Two screenshots are attached for your reference. Thanks.

Best regards,
Fisayo.

[Xiphware]

Anytime I upload my XLS form, many of the choices appear in duplicates.

Firstly, given you are under-the-gun, is there a reason you must edit your form in the Form Builder? That is, have you tried just uploading your XLSForm and deploying it as-is, and if so does it behave as you wish?

If you upload your form and it does in fact work - in both Enketo and KoboCollect - when deployed, then you can probably relax a little (yes, there is still an issue with the Form Builder, but at least your actual form is actually working).

Either way, can you please upload your original XLSForm definition and we can take a look.

[fisayo_fakoyede237]

@Xiphware

Firstly, given you are under-the-gun, is there a reason you must edit your form in the Form Builder? That is, have you tried just uploading your XLSForm and deploying it as-is, and if so does it behave as you wish?

If you upload your form and it does in fact work - in both Enketo and KoboCollect - when deployed, then you can probably relax a little (yes, there is still an issue with the Form Builder, but at least your actual form is actually working).

Either way, can you please upload your original XLSForm definition and we can take a look.

Thank you very much for your response!

Yes I have tried just uploading my XLSForm and deploying it just the way it is; and it worked. But when I check it out in the form preview, the choice duplicates are still there. I’m quite concerned that this is what my respondents will encounter when they try filling the survey. See below:

This is my XLS Form:
WBL Questionnaire.xlsx (104.2 KB)

Thank you very much.

[Kal_Lam]

@fisayo_fakoyede237, I see a form design issue that is affecting the choices duplication. FYR …

Choices sheet as seen under the choices tab:

Settings sheet as seen under the settings tab:

Here you have made duplicate choices under the choices sheet and have also instructed the system to ignore this under the settings tab.

Fix this and that should solve your issue.

You should be able to learn mora about choices duplicate from this community post discussed previously:

Choice duplicate

Hi @maggib, I found the duplicate that i have highlighted with yellow and marked the font with red within list_name lf3sx85 whose name prefer_not_to_answer is seen repeated twice within list_name lf3sx85. For your ease check row number 89 and 93 under choices tab. [Image 1] The principle behind this is that each list_name should have unique code under it’s associated name. e.g. this is not allowed … list_name name test a test a test a … but this is allowed … list_name na…

[Xiphware]

@fisayo_fakoyede237

This is my XLS Form:

I - likewise - see in your original form definition that you uploaded above that you appear to be repeating choice options (probably for different survey questions…).

There is no reason to do this; the same (single!) yes.no choice list can be used for as many different select_one questions in your form as you want (whereas repeating them can get you in trouble, especially if you’ve set allow_choice_duplicates = yes …)

As @Kal_Lam suggests, please go thru your form and make sure you are not repeating choice lists anywhere. I note you do this elsewhere too; eg

Again, if all the choice options are basically exactly the same, then you do not need to duplicate them for every survey question. Just make a single choice list in your XLSForm, and then reuse it whenever you want to display the same options. It’ll actually make your form definition much shorter and easier to understand and modify.

[fisayo_fakoyede237]

Thank you for your response. I have renamed all duplicate choices in my XLS Form just as you suggested, yet I keep seeing duplicate choices in the form preview and form builder. This happened on three different occasions:

1. When I stated “yes” in the allow_choice_duplicates tab
2. When I stated “no” in the allow_choice_duplicates tab
3. When I removed the allow_choice_duplicates tab from the settings sheet.

Please find attached my corrected XLS Form to see if I am still missing anything out. I’m deeply grateful for the team’s help so far.
WBL Questionnaire - Corrected (version 1).xlsx (107.1 KB)

[Kal_Lam]

@fisayo_fakoyede237, it seems like you still have not removed the duplicate yes.no that is seen under the list_name column header.

Maybe only having one yes.no in the choice sheet should solve your issue.

[fisayo_fakoyede237]

Thanks again for your response.

Please, is this what you are asking me to do:

I tried uploading my XLS Form this way and I still have the duplicate choices.

Please kindly show me how to remove the duplicate “yes.no” as suggested. I really don’t understand what to do. Thanks.

Best regards,
Fisayo.

[Kal_Lam]

@fisayo_fakoyede237, you may need to go through this community post discussed previously:

Choice duplicate

Hi @maggib, I found the duplicate that i have highlighted with yellow and marked the font with red within list_name lf3sx85 whose name prefer_not_to_answer is seen repeated twice within list_name lf3sx85. For your ease check row number 89 and 93 under choices tab. [Image 1] The principle behind this is that each list_name should have unique code under it’s associated name. e.g. this is not allowed … list_name name test a test a test a … but this is allowed … list_name na…

[fisayo_fakoyede237]

Hello KoboToolbox Team. I am very grateful for your tremendous support. I have fixed all repeated choice options and my form is now looking better.

Best regards,
Fisayo.

[Kal_Lam]

@fisayo_fakoyede237,