Description
A listquestion expects an open listof answers.Each answer can contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z,0-9) and basicpunctuation symbols. By default the enumerator can add up to 40 items;however you can limit the number of items that can be listed by definingthe maximum number of answers.
For example, very frequently national household surveys ask theenumerator to list all the household members, instead of first askingfor the total number of people living in the household and then fortheir names. Therefore, because the household size is unknown it can beany number. You would define the question in the following manner: “Listthe names of the people who live in the household” without limiting thehousehold size.
On the other hand, there are some questions where you would like theanswer list to be limited to a certain number. For example, in a surveymeasuring household food security vulnerability, one of the questionsasked may be “List up to four threats that make your household at riskof being food insecure”. For this question you would assign a maximumnumber of answers to equal four.
An open list without a maximum number of answers.
An open list with a maximum number of answers.
Creating a list question
In Questionnaire Designer,
- Click on the Question Type text box.
- Select List from the drop down menu.
How a list question appears on a tablet
To answer the question the enumerator has to:
Tap on the text box.
An empty row will display and the keyboard automatically shows alphacharacters. The enumerator can navigate through the keyboard toselect the numeric characters, basic punctuation symbols and thespace.
 |  |
The enumerator clicks on  to change the display of the keyboard. | The enumerator clicks on  to change the display of the keyboard. |
Once the enumerator finishes listing the answers, the answer box willdisplay the complete list.
Options
Maximum number of elements
By default the field ofMaximum number of list elements is blank. Thismeans that the default maximum number of listed answers assigned by thesystem is 40. You may want to limit the number of answers that can besubmitted. For example, consider the case of a marketing survey whereyou are only interested in the interviewee’s two most favorite colors.
In order to assign a maximum number of answers lower than the defaultnumber, you need to type the corresponding number in the Maximum numberof list elements field.
On a tablet, a text field is shown until the maximum number of answersis listed.
A text field is no longer shown once the maximum number of answers hasbeen listed.
Export
The listed answers are exported in text variables in a tab-delimitedfile. The system creates as many variables (columns in tab-delimitedfile) as the total number of possible answers. For example, if themaximum number of answers has been defined as 5, then there will be 5variables in the tab-delimited file. If the maximum number of answershas not been defined, the system will automatically create 40 variablesfor the question. The exported variable names are built by linking thequestion’s variable name and an index number (starting from 0).
List question
Unanswered question exported in tab-delimited file
Answered question exported in tab-delimited file
