Zip code filtering now that Regex is gone? | XM Community
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Zip code filtering now that Regex is gone?

  • 16 December 2019
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ironspider
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Greetings all, I was met with the nasty surprise that "Matches Regex" matching is no longer a thing in the Directory for filtering. This is a serious blow to me as 100% of my recruitment effort starts by only contacting people that live within 50 miles of our location (our research participants come in to our facility to test). I need help on formulating a workaround.

Previously I had a Regex expression that matched to the 660 Zip Codes within 50 miles of me and would run that against my Directory. It was slow but it always worked. Since that is now gone and Qualtrics does not offer any tool that allows "distance from zipcode" what do I do now? Do I create a saved filter/search that is 660 lines long? With one line for each Zipcode? Can you even have a search filter that is 660 lines long? I tried just pasting all 660 Zip codes into a "embedded data > ZIpCode > Contains >" filter but that failed (I tried it with a space between zipcodes and also tried it with a pipe "|" between Zip codes).

Ideas?

Thanks.
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Best answer by Kate 17 December 2019, 17:32

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K
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Userlevel 7
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Oh gosh that sounds terrible.

The soultion is to get some sort of new embedded data category that is just "50 Miles = yes" or "1" or whatever.

I think when it comes to your old data, you're looking at a really manual process. Looking up everyone with each zipcode and adding the new category. But for any new incoming indivudals, it's just a matter of using the regex to assign it from the start on an intake form.

Hopefully someone has a good brainstorm on how to do that manual process faster...

!
ironspider
Userlevel 1
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Thanks for the idea Kate that sounds workable. Yeah it will be a pain to update the current ten thousand entries 😞 but it would basically be automated going forward using your method. I guess this is where I should wonder if they're going to stop supporting Regex in forms?

I suppose for the old entries I can just export the Directory, filter the contacts in Excel based on the Zip codes that are within 50 miles and then assign those filtered contacts a "yes" or "true" or "1" in the new embedded data field.

The other good thing about doing it your way is that I don't have to ask the participant "Do you live within 50 miles?" since they aren't always sure or give truthful answers.
K
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Userlevel 7
Badge +19
A great point @ironspider, I think that export and upload makes a lot of sense. Maybe if you contact suppor they can even run a regex for you to do the export? Or let you run an eariler version of Qualtrics for a bit so that you can do the export? IDK what sort of capabilities they have, but it might be better to ask first rather than try to go it alone without checking.

I think your "50 miles" question might work to. The may not know exact mileage... But I can imagine someone living 54 who would be willing to come in who has previously been excluded from the data pull.

You can also try a "drive time" metric rather than a miles metric. That might be a better thing to point-blank-ask on an intake form rather than mileage. "Do you live within 1 hour of our facility?" Same concept, same use, but more in-line with what a participant might be familiar with.

I hope they don't get rid of Regex support for Qualtrics. I'm sure it's not a commonly used thing, but it helps me get creative with stuff for sure.

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