If you need to do a survey where you would like to compare email addresses. For example, to confirm the survey taker has typed their email address correctly. When the typed email addresses don't match, the survey taker is notified of the error. This is called email validation and you can do this in your Qualtrics surveys.

The video, above, details how you can set up a survey question to confirm email addresses. We will post the steps here but you may want to watch the video as well. (The video quality isn’t great; we are working on a way to upload videos to YouTube that results in better quality for these types of training videos.)

First, start with a text entry for your email address. You want to set the question for content validation. Make sure you have the email address contact type chosen. Now, check that the question for confirmation of the email address is separate from the first one. Note: you cannot do email validations in a question that is set up as a form.

Next, you need to pipe the question one information so pick the curly brackets’ or pipe-text icon. Base your pipe-text on the first question’s email address and copy the whole piece of code. Be sure you highlight all of it.

Go back up to your second question and choose a custom validation. Under email address, pick your first question. Choose email address
“equals to”. You can select “ignore case” to ignore inconsistent use of capital letters.

You will need to choose a message to display when the email addresses do not match. You may have one set up in your library already. If so, choose that message and hit save. If not, go to your library and create one. Be sure to preview and test your survey to ensure the error message is working properly before you send your survey.

View the video for screenshots that accompany these step-by-step instructions or contact Linda.Charlton@ndsu.edu for further assistance.