Answer Types

An answer type is the data type in which the answers have to be provided. Internal users can define the type such as character, number, date, and so on while defining the answer type. It is the format in which the respondent is expected to answer. The Answer type has to be defined while creating a question. Possible answer types are, character, number, date, set of possible answers and so on. Internal Users can create new answer types as per the requirement.

Types

The standard possible answer types are:

Character
Number
Set of Possible Answers
Date
Entity
Attachment

Users with the Administrator and Responsible user roles can set the answer types.

Type Settings

The Answer types that can be defined and the definitions that can be set for each answer type are mentioned in the following table:

Table 1. Answer type settings
Answer Type	Description	Answer definition you can set
Character	Allows entry in a combination of characters.	Regular expressions. Maximum No of characters that can be entered. If multiple Answers can be given. At least this minimum number of answers have to be given. Not more than this maximum number of answers can be given. Note: You can make a text question dependent on another text question for field validation options.
Number	Allows entry in digits	The minimum value that is allowed. The maximum value that is allowed. Number of decimals points. Roll-over questions
Date	Allows a date format entry. A date question answer can now be used to trigger the renewal of an assessment series when the assessment is about to expire. For the Answer type ‘Date’, the trigger is Trigger renew of series where you can define the date for renewing the assessment. You can also define why the series should be renewed and how many days in advance the series should be renewed. Post Function must be defined for the assessment to generate series.	Option to enter only future dates.
Set of Possible answers	Allows pre-defined answers to be set.	Pre-defined answers that respondents can choose from. Option to enter multiple answers - the minimum and maximum number that can be entered.
Attachment	Allows files to be attached.	Option to attach multiple files - the minimum and the maximum number that can be attached.
Entity	Allows selection of business objects present in the system. Note: The Supplier, Organization, and Internal person entity types are not valid for spontaneous registrations. A warning message displays if the supplier responds to the questions and the supplier response is not considered during the registration evaluation.	You can select single or multiple business object types from supplier, region, category, organization, or internal person. If you select region as the object type, you can provide the following additional restrictions: None: No restrictions are selected. Countries only: List of the regions with sub-type countries is displayed to the user States only: List of the regions with sub-type state of a specific country is displayed to the user. You can set the option to provide multiple answers. You can define the maximum and the minimum number of answers that a user can enter Note: You cannot change the object type and the sub-type after a question is released.