This guide explains the two kinds of conditions you can set, how to set them in the Survey Builder, and a few real examples you’ll likely want to use.
Two ways to make something conditional
Quick PIT lets you attach a condition at two levels, and you’ll reach for each in different situations:
- A conditional question shows or hides a single question. Use it for one-off follow-ups — “only ask Veteran Status if the person is an adult,” for instance.
- A conditional page shows or hides a whole page of questions at once. This is the real time-saver: instead of adding the same condition to a dozen youth-specific questions one by one, you put them all on one page and condition the page. If the condition isn’t met, the entire page is skipped and your surveyor never sees it.
How to set a condition in the Survey Builder
Whether you’re working on a question or a page, the steps are the same. In the builder you’ll see a checkbox:
- On a question: “Show only if (conditional logic)”
- On a page: “Show this page only if (conditional logic)”
Tick it, and three controls appear. Together they read like a sentence — show this when [target question] [operator] [value]:
- Target question — the earlier question whose answer you’re keying off. (Display-only items like instructions and surveyor-read text can’t be targets; only questions that capture an answer appear in the list.)
- Operator — how to compare the answer. For choice questions you’ll use is / is not / contains / does not contain. For age and number questions you’ll see the numeric comparisons instead: greater than, less than, ≥, ≤, and between.
- Value — what you’re comparing against: a choice from the target question (e.g. the “Yes” option) or, for an age/number target, a number. Choosing between gives you two boxes for a range (e.g. min and max age).
A nice convenience: when your target is a Date of Birth question, Quick PIT automatically works in terms of the person’s age. You set “less than 25” and the app computes the age from the DOB (or from an age the surveyor enters directly) and compares against it — you don’t have to do any date math.
Three examples worth using
1. A youth page for anyone under 25
Put all of your youth-specific questions on a single page. Set the page condition to: target = Date of Birth, operator = less than, value = 25. Now the whole page appears only for people under 25 and is skipped entirely for everyone else — with no per-question setup. Add or remove youth questions later and they inherit the page’s condition automatically.
2. Veteran Status only for adults
Data standards only collects Veteran Status for adults. Add a condition to the Veteran Status question: target = Date of Birth, operator = greater than or equal to, value = 18. It quietly disappears for minors, so surveyors never have to think about whether it applies. If you use the default surveys this logic and lots of other are already applied.
3. Domestic-violence follow-ups, only when needed
Lead with your screening question (for example, “Are you currently fleeing or trying to flee a domestic violence situation?”). Then set the sensitive follow-up questions — or a whole follow-up page — to show only if that question is Yes. The follow-ups stay hidden unless the first answer indicates they’re appropriate, which is both kinder to the respondent and faster for everyone else. We also add this conditional logic and more in the default surveys.
What your surveyors experience
In the field the survey simply adapts as it’s filled in. As soon as an answer makes a question or page relevant, it appears; if a later answer makes it irrelevant again, it tidies itself away. A few behaviors are worth knowing as you build:
- Conditions can chain. A follow-up can depend on a question that is itself conditional. If the first one is hidden, anything that depended on its answer is hidden too — the survey collapses cleanly rather than stranding orphaned questions.
- Empty pages don’t show. If every question on a page ends up hidden, the page is skipped — your surveyor won’t tap through a blank step.
- Order matters. A condition keys off an earlier answer, so place the trigger question before the content that depends on it — for example, the DV screening question ahead of its follow-up page.
Before and after
A tip before you publish
Conditional surveys are easy to build but always worth a quick test. Bind your survey to a practice count and walk through it on a phone, trying a few different answers — an adult and a youth, a “Yes” and a “No” on your DV screener — to confirm the right pages and questions appear and disappear as you expect. Once it looks right, it’ll behave the same way for every surveyor, every time.
The bottom line
Conditional logic turns a long, one-size-fits-all questionnaire into a survey that fits each person it’s used with. Set a rule once — especially at the page level — and your surveyors get a shorter, clearer experience while you get more consistent, more usable count data.