Randomizing the Order of Questions

In CSPro there is no simple way to change the order that questions are asked in a data entry application, but it can be done with some logic. The following code is an example of how one can use logic to randomize the order that questions are asked. The code randomizes the order in which five questions, the field names of which are listed in the fieldNames array, are asked.

PROC GLOBAL

numeric numQuestions = 5;

array questionOrder(5);

array alpha fieldNames(5) = "QUESTION1","QUESTION2","QUESTION3","QUESTION4","QUESTION5";

alpha fieldName;

function gotoQuestion(questionNumber)

fieldName = fieldNames(questionNumber);

move to fieldName;

end;

function nextQuestion()
fieldName = getsymbol();

// see where we are in the list

numeric i;
do i = 1 while fieldNames(i) <> fieldName

enddo;

// now i points to what question number we're on

// now find out where in the order it is

numeric j;
do j = 1 while questionOrder(j) <> i
enddo;
if j = numQuestions then

move to ANOTHER_QUESTION; // we are done with the rotating questions
else

gotoQuestion(questionOrder(j + 1));

endif;
end;

function startQuestions()

numeric i,j;

do i = 1 while i <= numQuestions

questionOrder(i) = random(1,numQuestions);

// see if this question has already been inserted

do j = ( i - 1 ) while j > 0 by (-1)

if questionOrder(j) = questionOrder(i) then // the new value is a repeat

j = 0; // this will terminate the inner do loop

i = i - 1; // this will force the outer do loop to repeat for this value

endif;

enddo;

enddo;
gotoQuestion(questionOrder(1));
end;

PROC CHANGEQUESTIONORDER_FF

preproc

seed(systime());

PROC CHANGEQUESTIONORDER_ID

startQuestions();

PROC QUESTION1

nextQuestion();

PROC QUESTION2

nextQuestion();

PROC QUESTION3
nextQuestion();

PROC QUESTION4
nextQuestion();

PROC QUESTION5

nextQuestion();