If you are looking to calculate responses or scores in your form, you can use our Advanced Expression Piping (AEP) functionality. AEP lets you perform mathematical calculations in your form, display the output to users, and record it in responses. This article will walk through the basics of using Advanced Piping within your forms.
Use AEP to do things like:
AEP lets you create expressions that use operators or functions to evaluate or manipulate data. The data can come from form responses or be passed from custom fields. Use AEP syntax to record the result of your expression in your responses or use the output to initiate branching logic.
AEP Syntax/Rule: {{ expression }}
For different available Expressions you can refer to the Available Expressions section below.
In order to set up your expressions on your forms:
You have now created an Advanced Piping formula!
| Correct | Incorrect |
| {{ expression }} | {{expression }} |
| {{ expression}} | |
| {{expression}} | |
| (( expression )) | |
| { expression } |
The format in which you set up your rule will have an impact on any errors that might occur. For more information, you can refer to How to Troubleshoot your Form Calculations.
Mentioned above in How to Set Up an Advanced Piping Expression, you can use three possible question types (Text Response or Hidden Field, or Section Heading), but which one should you use and when?
| Question Type | This question type will... |
| Text Response | - Display the calculation to your users - Be available in Reports - Allow your users to edit the calculated total before Saving |
| Hidden Field | - Hide the calculation from users - Be available in reports |
| Section Heading | - Display the calculation to users as read-only text - Not be reportable |
Often times the Hidden Field and the Section Heading will be used together, to ensure that the users can see the calculation result, not be able to edit it, and allow you to pull reports on the total.
Down below is a directory to how the response data can be manipulated with AEP. The functions use response data from basic question types such as multiple choice and checkbox as well as advanced question types like Multi-Column questions.