Adding skip logic in XLSForm

Last updated: 25 Nov 2025

Skip logic, also known as relevance logic, allows you to determine when a question or group of questions will be displayed in the form based on a previous question or the result of a calculation. For example, you can use it to ask follow-up questions only to a subset of respondents, or to hide entire sections of a form if they are not relevant.

To learn more about form logic in XLSForm, see Introduction to form logic in XLSForm.

This article covers the following topics:

• Adding skip logic to individual questions

• Combining multiple skip logic conditions

• Adding skip logic based on whether a question was answered

• Adding skip logic to question groups

Note: This article focuses on adding skip logic in XLSForm. To learn about adding skip logic in the KoboToolbox Formbuilder, see Adding skip logic in the Formbuilder.

For hands-on practice with skip logic in XLSForm, see KoboToolbox Academy’s XLSForm Fundamentals Course.

Adding skip logic conditions to individual questions

Skip logic uses question referencing to only display questions that are relevant to the respondent based on previous answers. The question used to define the relevance logic is referred to as the reference question.

To add skip logic in XLSForm:

1. Add a relevant column to the survey worksheet.

2. In the row of the question you wish to display or hide, enter the condition that must be met for the question to be displayed.

survey worksheet

type	name	label	relevant
integer	age	How old are you?
select_one yn	married	Are you married?	${age} > 18
survey

In the example above, ${age} is the reference question, and the answer to ${age} must be greater than 18 for the “Are you married?” question to be displayed.

Formatting skip logic conditions

The format of the skip logic condition will differ according to the type of the reference question, as detailed in the table below.

Reference question type	Skip logic condition	Example
select_one	${reference_question} = 'choice_name'	${consent} = 'yes'
select_multiple	selected(${reference_question}, 'choice_name')	selected(${reasons}, 'other')
integer	${reference_question} followed by a logical operator (>, <, =) and a number (or a reference to another question)	${age} >= 18
date	${reference_question} followed by a logical operator (>, <, =) and date('YYYY-MM-DD')	${dob} >= date('1975-01-01')

To learn more about building form logic expressions in XLSForm, see Introduction to form logic in XLSForm.

Combining multiple skip logic conditions

Multiple relevance conditions can be combined into a single expression to determine when a question is displayed based on a previous response. Conditions can be combined using and, or, and not logical operators:

• Use and when all conditions must be met for a question to be displayed.

  • For example: ${age} > 18 and ${student} = ‘no’

• Use or when at least one condition must be met for a question to be displayed.

  • For example: ${age} < 18 or ${student} = ‘yes’

• Use not to indicate that a condition or set of conditions must not be met (e.g., when two conditions cannot be true together for a question to be displayed).

  • For example: not(${age} > 18 and ${student} = ‘yes’)

survey worksheet

type	name	label	relevant
integer	age	What is your age?
select_one yn	employed	Are you employed?	${age} >= 16 and ${age} <= 75
survey

Adding skip logic based on whether a question was answered

In addition to adding skip logic based on a specific response, you can add skip logic based on whether a question was answered or left blank. This can be useful to add follow-up questions, or when using acknowledge questions in your form.

Unanswered questions are treated as empty strings, noted as two single apostrophes ''. The following skip logic conditions can be used:

Skip logic condition	Description
${reference_question} != ''	Display only if reference_question is answered (not blank).
${reference_question} = ''	Display only if reference_question is unanswered (blank).

survey worksheet

type	name	label	relevant
text	why_joined	Why did you join?
select_one yn	benefits	Are you seeing benefits?	${why_joined} != ‘’
survey

Adding skip logic conditions to question groups

Skip logic can be applied to question groups as well as individual questions. Applying skip logic to a group will show or hide all questions within that group based on previous responses.

To add skip logic to question groups:

1. Add a relevant column to the survey worksheet.

2. In the begin_group row of the question group you wish to display or hide, enter the condition that must be met for the group to be displayed.

survey worksheet

type	name	label	relevant
select_one yn	joined	Did you join the association?
begin_group	association	Association participation	${joined} = ‘yes’
date	date_joined	When did you join the association?
select_one yn	voted	Have you ever voted in any election for the association?
end_group
survey