Long text answers not appearing?

[AndrewXLS]

Hi all,

I have a survey of around 120 questions. 10 of these are multi-line text responses. However, I’ve just tested these (by adding 1,900 characters of dummy text - just all in one paragraph) into these 10 questions. When I download the data, only the first two appear, and the other data is lost. I’m using the online-only collection setting in Kobo.

Is this an issue with length? If so, how would I create a constraint for (for example) 200 characters per question?

EDIT: Bizarrely, when downloading data (XLS or CSV) the data both doesn’t appear - and for the Excel, the data is split across two sheets - with some questions completely missing. Attaching the survey here.

Updated survey_anonymised.xlsx (67.4 KB)

Thanks!

[AndrewXLS]

Should have mentioned - Enketo is the method of data collection (not the Kobo app).

EDIT: Bizarrely, when downloading data (XLS or CSV) the data both doesn’t appear - and for the Excel, the data is split across two sheets - with some questions completely missing. Attached the survey above.

[AndrewXLS]

Hi all,

I have a survey of around 120 questions. 10 of these are multi-line text responses. However, I’ve just tested these (by adding 1,900 characters of dummy text - just all in one paragraph) into these 10 questions. When I download the data, only the first two appear, and the other data is lost. I’m using the online-only collection setting in Kobo.

Is this an issue with length? If so, how would I create a constraint for (for example) 200 characters per question?

Bizarrely, when downloading data (XLS or CSV) the data both doesn’t appear - and for the Excel, the data is split across two sheets - with some questions completely missing. Attaching the survey here.

Updated survey_anonymised.xlsx (67.4 KB)

Thanks!

[Kal_Lam]

Welcome back to the community, @AndrewXLS! Maybe this post discussed previously should help you understand the scenario and solve your issue:

Maximum number of characters in text questions

Hi @analucia_espinoza, Adding up to what @wroos has outlined above, would like to document more information on the character limit with Enketo, Enketo at the moment supports only 2000 characters of text input (which includes space). If you try typing in Enketo, you will notice that you won’t be able to type any characters when it reaches the threshold limit (2000 characters). If you try pasting a text (which is more than 2000 characters) in Enketo, you will be able to paste only 2000 character…

[AndrewXLS]

Thanks, @Kal_Lam!

Just to confirm, is this 2,000 characters in total (i.e. across all of the free-text questions) - or 2,000 characters per answer?

Also, one of the responses at the end of the (very helpful!) thread you linked to mentions they were able to post 22,000+ characters. What is the Enketo limit?

[Kal_Lam]

It’s 2000 characters per question.

[AndrewXLS]

Thanks, but maybe there’s an error with my survey? I completed it adding 1,900 characters to any free-text question - and had the above issues. Several of the longer-responses weren’t saved at all, and then all of the data was split across two Excel sheets (with the last 10 or so questions not included at all). Were you able to replicate this at all?

[hakan_cetinkaya]

Hi @AndrewXLS,

@AndrewXLS

and then all of the data was split across two Excel sheets (with the last 10 or so questions not included at all).

Your form includes repeat groups. That might be the reason of split you’re referring.

For more information you can look to this article:
https://support.kobotoolbox.org/group_repeat.html?highlight=repeat#creating-a-roster-repeating-group-of-questions

The resulting data structure from a roster is different from the data you normally see with other variables or groups. When downloading your data, you will see a different sheet for each roster (i.e. the number of additional sheets corresponds with the number of repeating groups that you have within your survey form).

[AndrewXLS]

Yup, that is the split - you’re right! But, the xls (or csv) downloads seem to not download any data from the group that comes after the repeat. It’s not in either sheet. Any idea why it’s disappearing?

[wroos]

Hello @AndrewXLS,
Could you tell us, please, how you solved the problem and what was the cause?

[AndrewXLS]

No problem! As I was using Enketo, the issue appeared to be the 1,900 limit.

[wroos]

Would you mind to provide more details and how you solved it, please?

[AndrewXLS]

Sure! Unfortunately, just a workaround: limiting the answer length and also including a prompt to keep answers more succinct.

Relevant code under the ‘constraint’ column (for 1,000 characters - taking no chances!): regex(., ‘^[\D\d\s]{1,1000}$’)

Relevant language under the constraint_message and hint columns: ‘Please keep your answer within 1,000 characters’

[Kal_Lam]

Thank you @AndrewXLS for sharing your solution with the entire community! It should be helpful to others having similar issues.

[AndrewXLS]

No problem at all!