What is Piping?
Piping inserts answers a respondent already gave into later questions or messages so the survey reads like a conversation. It personalises surveys and reduces repetition by automatically reusing earlier responses.
Piping is a survey feature that takes a respondent's previous answer (for example a name, selected option or number) and places it into later questions, instructions or confirmation messages. It usually works with simple placeholders or tokens — e.g. “{FirstName}” — that the builder inserts into question text. When the respondent reaches that screen the placeholder is replaced with their actual answer. Piping can be simple (repeat a single answer inline) or part of a loop/repeat flow where a set of questions is repeated for each item a respondent lists.
Usage example
Q1: What is your child's first name? — Answer: Aisha
Later question text: Thank you, {ChildName}. Which class is {ChildName} in?
On the respondent's view this becomes: Thank you, Aisha. Which class is Aisha in?
Practical application
Piping matters because it makes surveys feel more personal, reduces the need for respondents to retype information and helps avoid data-entry mistakes. For Hearo's multilingual use cases, piping also reduces translation overhead — you write the survey once and the platform stitches respondents' answers into translated prompts automatically. Practical considerations: keep piped phrases short to avoid grammatical problems in target languages; review how placeholders interact with gender, formality and word order; avoid piping sensitive personal data into public-facing messages; and test repeat/looped sections so each language reads naturally. Hearo's translation-review workflow lets you check and improve any piped wording that doesn't read correctly in another language.
FAQ
How does piping work with automatic translation?
When a survey uses piping, Hearo translates the surrounding question text and inserts the respondent's original answer into the translated sentence at the placeholder. Because the inserted answer is user-generated text, administrators can view it translated back into their chosen language and participants can flag wording that looks awkward — letting teams refine templates and translations over time.
Will piping break grammar in other languages?
Piping can create grammatical mismatches (for example with gendered words or different word order). To reduce issues, keep piped text short, avoid forcing grammatical agreement where possible, and review common language pairs. Hearo's review workflow and participant feedback tools let you spot and correct problem phrasing quickly.
Can I pipe sensitive information (names, IDs) into later screens or emails?
Yes, but do so carefully. Only pipe data that is safe to display for the respondent and any recipients of the message. Avoid piping highly sensitive identifiers into public or shared screens, and check your organisation's data-protection rules before including personal data in confirmation messages.
What’s the difference between piping and looping (repeat)?
Piping inserts a single earlier answer into later text. Looping (or repeat) uses a list of items a respondent provides and repeats a block of questions for each item (for example asking the same set of questions for every household member). Piping is often used inside loops to personalise each repeated block.