Piping
Piping
Repeat an earlier answer inside a later question, so the survey reads like a conversation.
Piping inserts an answer someone has already given into text shown later — a question title, a description, a placeholder, an option label.
Edit the template below and watch the result change:
Respondent sees
Hi Alice, thanks for coming back!
The syntax
| Marker | What it does |
|---|---|
{{v:questionId}} | Inserts the answer to that question |
{{e: … }} | Evaluates an expression and inserts the result |
You rarely type these by hand. Lensym inserts them for you and displays them as a labelled pill, so what you see in the editor is the question's name, not its id.
Three ways to insert a pipe
- Use the braces button on Title to open its field editor.
- Description and other supported fields have their own field editor buttons.
Drag a question into the field
The fastest way. Drag any question from the canvas onto a text field — every field that accepts a pipe lights up while you drag. See drag a question into a field.
Use the field editor
Select the { } button on a field, or press ⌘E. A dialog opens with every earlier question listed on the left.
Type the marker
Type {{v: and the rest, if you already know the id. It becomes a pill as soon as it parses.
You can only pipe answers from earlier questions
A pipe pointing at a question that has not been asked yet has nothing to insert. Lensym only offers questions that come before the field you are editing.
Piping part of an answer
Some questions hold more than one value. A ranking has a top and a bottom item; a date range has a start and an end; an NPS question has a score and a follow-up reason. When you insert a pipe from one of these, you also choose which part to insert.
Calculations
Expressions do arithmetic, comparisons and conditionals on answers — averaging scores, converting units, or picking a label based on a value.
Advanced piping
EssentialAdd calculated expressions and pipe values into numeric fields.
Compare plansPut piping to work
- Calculate scores from earlier numeric answers.
- Personalize wording with conditional text and fallbacks.
- Pipe complex answers, such as a top-ranked topic or a Matrix row.