Does Qualtrics export null/blank response values as empty strings in XLSX, and is there a way to export them as truly empty Excel cells? | Experience Community
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Does Qualtrics export null/blank response values as empty strings in XLSX, and is there a way to export them as truly empty Excel cells?

  • September 24, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 14 views

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Hi everyone,

I’m having an issue with Excel file exported from survey response.

Some fields that should be blank (unanswer question in survey) appear completely empty in Excel. However, when I use COUNTA() to count the value, these seemingly blank cells are still counted as 1.

Then i selected the cell and pressed Delete. After that, COUNTA() changed from 1 to 0.

This makes me suspect that Qualtrics is exporting these blank responses as an empty string (“” or <p></p>) rather than a truly blank Excel cell.

Is there a way to configure the Excel export so that blank/unanswered fields are exported as truly blank cells, rather than empty strings or other hidden values?

Thanks in advance!

1 reply

vgayraud
QPN Level 8 ●●●●●●●●
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  • QPN Level 8 ●●●●●●●●
  • September 24, 2026

Always safer to export as csv and then load in excel.