How do I change delimiters while exporting survey data?

How do I change delimiters while exporting survey data?

When exporting survey responses, you can customize how your data is formatted to match your reporting or import requirements. SurveySensum allows you to choose a delimiter for multi-select answers, and when exporting as CSV, you can also define the cell separation delimiter.

To change the delimiter

  1. Open the survey whose responses you want to export.
  2. Navigate to the Report tab.
  3. Click Export & Import in the top-right corner.
  4. Select either Export as Excel or Export as CSV.



  5. In the export configuration window, click Advanced Settings from the left panel.
  6. Under Select Delimiter for multi-select answers, choose how multiple selected options should be separated in the exported file.



  7. If you selected Export as CSV, you will also see the Delimiter for cell separation option. Choose how individual columns in the CSV file should be separated.



  8. Click Export to download the file.

Available delimiters for multi-select answers

You can choose from the following options:

  • Pipe (|)
  • New Line
  • Comma (,)
  • Hyphen (-)
  • Custom Delimiter

For example, if a respondent selected Email, SMS, and WhatsApp, the exported value could appear as:

  • Pipe: Email | SMS | WhatsApp
  • Comma: Email, SMS, WhatsApp
  • Hyphen: Email - SMS - WhatsApp

  • New Line:

    Email
    SMS
    WhatsApp
  • Custom Delimiter: Email ~ SMS ~ WhatsApp

Additional options for CSV exports

When exporting as a CSV, you can configure the Delimiter for cell separation, which controls how columns are separated throughout the CSV file.

The available options are:

  • Pipe (|)
  • Comma (,)
  • Hyphen (-)
  • Semicolon (;)

For example:

  • Comma (,): John,Doe,New York
  • Semicolon (;): John;Doe;New York
  • Pipe (|): John|Doe|New York
  • Hyphen (-): John-Doe-New York

This setting is separate from the multi-select answer delimiter, allowing you to independently control how multiple answers are displayed within a cell and how columns are separated in the exported CSV file.

Best Practices

  • Use Comma as the cell separator for maximum compatibility with spreadsheet applications.
  • Use Semicolon if your regional settings use commas as decimal separators.
  • Choose Pipe or a Custom Delimiter for multi-select answers to avoid conflicts when response values contain commas.
  • Use different delimiters for multi-select answers and cell separation to ensure the exported data is easy to parse and analyze.