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Pipe text from drilldown question then lookup values from supplemental data source

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
June 5, 2025
2 replies
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+1

Naz_MSDE

I have a drilldown question with two dropdowns: State and City. Separately, I’ve uploaded a supplemental data file containing Unique ID, State, City, and other additional fields. Unique ID, State, and City have all been set as search fields.

I want the respondent to select State, then City, from drilldown question, then based on the selection look up values from additional fields and then pipe text into latter questions.

This seems to work with a multiple choice question as there is only one field that can be used as the lookup value but not with two dropdowns.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best answer by rochak_khandelwal

Hi @Naz_MSDE — you’ve hit on one of the trickier limitations of the drill-down question type in Qualtrics.

You’re right: when using two-level drilldowns (like State → City), the Lookup from a Contact List or Supplemental Data only allows one value (usually the final selection) to act as the search key — not both levels together.

Here’s a workaround that may help:
1. In your uploaded data file, create a new column called something like StateCityKey, which concatenates both fields:

StateCityKey = State + "-" + City
(e.g., Texas-Houston)

Set this new StateCityKey as the search field in your directory or supplemental data.
Then, use embedded data in your Survey Flow to define:
Embedded Data:
StateCityKey = ${dd://QIDxx/ChoiceGroup/1} - ${dd://QIDxx/ChoiceGroup/2}

Replace QIDxx with your drill-down question ID.
Now use StateCityKey as the lookup key for pulling additional values from your uploaded data.

Do let me know if it helps.

+34

rochak_khandelwal
Level 5 ●●●●●
Answer
Forum|Forum|7 months ago
June 19, 2025

Hi @Naz_MSDE — you’ve hit on one of the trickier limitations of the drill-down question type in Qualtrics.

You’re right: when using two-level drilldowns (like State → City), the Lookup from a Contact List or Supplemental Data only allows one value (usually the final selection) to act as the search key — not both levels together.

Here’s a workaround that may help:
1. In your uploaded data file, create a new column called something like StateCityKey, which concatenates both fields:

StateCityKey = State + "-" + City
(e.g., Texas-Houston)

Set this new StateCityKey as the search field in your directory or supplemental data.
Then, use embedded data in your Survey Flow to define:
Embedded Data:
StateCityKey = ${dd://QIDxx/ChoiceGroup/1} - ${dd://QIDxx/ChoiceGroup/2}

Replace QIDxx with your drill-down question ID.
Now use StateCityKey as the lookup key for pulling additional values from your uploaded data.

Do let me know if it helps.