I am writing an R script to program a Qualtrics survey from an Excel template I created. I grab the survey items from the Excel template via the xlsx package and then do a bit of munging to create a .txt file formatted the way I want it. The problem is that I can't upload it to Qualtrics unless I select all in the resulting .txt file, copy, and paste into a blank .txt file.
This is not a question about Qualtrics, per se, and I don't think one needs to know anything about this platform to consider the question. I believe that my problem is in the R output file format. I hope if you continue reading, you will see what I mean.
Everything in the following code block should work.
require(xlsx)
# import survey file; get from Dropbox link above
survey <- read.xlsx("template.xlsx", "survey")
survey <- subset(survey, !is.na(survey$questiontext)) # drop if blank
choices <- read.xlsx("template.xlsx", "choices")
# create vector to hold results
output <- "[[AdvancedFormat]]"
# loop through every question
for (i in 1:nrow(survey)) {
# insert start block if one exists
bs <- ifelse(is.na(survey$blockname[i]), "",
paste0("[[Block:",
as.character(survey$blockname[i]), "]]"))
# insert end block if one exists
be <- ifelse(is.na(survey$endblock[i]), "",
as.character(survey$endblock[i]))
# insert item ID if one exists
qid <- ifelse(is.na(survey$questionid[i]), "",
paste0("[[ID:",
as.character(survey$questionid[i]), "]]"))
# subset choice sheet to selected choice
choices.sub <- subset(choices, choices$listname==survey$choicelist[i])
responses <- ""
# create vector of choices
for (ch in 1:nrow(choices.sub)) {
responses <- paste(responses, choices.sub$label[ch], sep="\r")
}
# insert page break if one exists
pb <- ifelse(is.na(survey$pagebreak[i]) | i==nrow(survey), "",
as.character(survey$pagebreak[i]))
# add to output vector
output <- paste(output,
bs,
survey$questiontype[i],
qid,
survey$questiontext[i],
survey$choicetype[i],
responses,
pb,
be,
sep="\r")
}
# write to txt file
cat(output, file = (con <- file("foo1.txt", "w", encoding = "UTF-8"))); close(con)
Here's the resulting foo1.txt file from R. Qualtrics rejects this file. If I select all from this file and copy into a new blank .txt file (using ST3), foo2.txt, Qualtrics is happy.
What is different about these two files? I'm not changing anything in foo2.txt. Just copy/paste into a new file.
@CarlWitthoft pointed me in the right direction with his comment:
This is almost always a conflict between
<CR>and<CR>-<LF>as end-of-line terminators.
I searched on the topic and found this SO thread that led me to change my \r to \n. That did the trick.