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Data Export Formats

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About Export Formats

Among your export options, you can choose the file type of your downloaded data. The available file types are:

    • CSV (Comma Separated Values)
    • TSV (Tab Separated Values)
    • Excel
    • XML (Extensible Markup Language)
    • SPSS (Statistical Analysis Package)
    • Google Drive (Exports as a Google Sheet)
    • Tableau (Extension with Tableau)
      Warning: This export format is available only if you have the Tableau Extension enabled for your account.
    • JSON (Javascript Object Notation) & Open Data Protocol
      Warning: This export format is available only with the API Extension.

You can also export User Submitted Files, or files respondents have uploaded through the File Upload question type.

Along top of the download data table window is a list of file formats

Qtip: Not all export formats on this page are default Qualtrics features. If you do not see 1 of these formats on your account and would like it added, please reach out to the Brand Administrator in your organization or, if you are the Brand Administrator, to your Account Executive at Qualtrics.

CSV

image of the data export window. the CSV export option is selected
CSV is a text file type that can be opened in Microsoft Excel, a convenient program for viewing data. From Excel, a CSV file can be converted and viewed in other statistical modeling software.

Overall view of CSV data export opened in a spreadsheet

CSV and TSV are compatible file formats for importing response data and contacts to Qualtrics. See the Troubleshooting CSV/TSV Upload Issues support page if you are having trouble importing with these file types.

Qtip: Though CSV files do not have a column limit, Excel does. Excel 2003 has a limit of 256 columns and Excel 2007 has a limit of 16,000. Some surveys may have more variables than these. In these situations, the data will be stored in the downloaded CSV file, but cannot be displayed in Excel. If this is the case, you will need to find another program to view the data (SPSS, SAS, STATA, etc.).

TSV

A TSV file is a simple text format for storing data in a tabular structure.

image of the data export window. the TSV export option is selected

Each record in the table is 1 line of the text file and columns are separated (delimited) by a tab. TSV is an alternative to the comma separated values (CSV) format and can be opened by Text Editors (such as Notepad) and spreadsheet programs (such as Excel).

Data export opened in a plain text editor and in a spreadsheet

CSV and TSV are compatible file formats for importing response data and contacts to Qualtrics.

Qtip: TSV files are very useful if your data contains special characters. Should you encounter issues opening your TSV with Excel, you can see our CSV/TSV Upload Issues page for troubleshooting guidelines.

Excel

image of the data export window. the google Excel option is selected

When you choose to export in Excel format, you will export your data to an XLSX file.

Excel file. Unlike CSV and TSV screenshots, you can see the column headers are grayed out and there are dropdown arrows you can use for advanced column filtering

Although CSV, TSV, and XML are all compatible with Excel, the default document format in Excel is generally XLSX. XLSX exports can support customization in Excel such as sheets, highlights, column filtering, and other advanced changes that the other available file types cannot.

XML

image of the data export window. the XML export option is selected

XML is a general-purpose markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents. Files in XML format are readable by both computers and machines and are commonly used for putting your raw data into a database. It is also compatible with Excel.

Data download in XML format

SPSS

image of the data export window. the SPSS export option is selected

SPSS is a software package used for statistical analysis. SPSS files download in SAV format.

Data export opened in SPSS

If you’re having difficulty with international characters in your file and you’re using SPSS version 16 or later, you can try changing the Character Encoding for Data and Syntax setting to Unicode.

To change the Character Encoding for Data and Syntax

  1. Close any open datasets.
  2. Go to the SPSS Edit menu and select Options.
  3. In the general tab under Character Encoding for Data and Syntax, choose Unicode.
  4. Click OK.

Qualtrics encodes international characters using the unicode UTF-8 character set. Unfortunately, old versions of SPSS (SPSS Version 15 and earlier) do not support unicode. You may want to consider upgrading to a newer version of SPSS.

SPSS Syntax Files & Corresponding Data Files

2 additional file formats are available in the More Options for SPSS exports: SPSS Syntax File and Corresponding Data. The syntax file and corresponding data can be used to build the SPSS file after download. However, please note that prior SPSS knowledge is needed to do this. Qualtrics Support is unable to help with SPSS file parsing.

If you are looking for a simple SPSS file, we recommend downloading the standard SPSS file format.

"More Options" available for SPSS files

Google Drive

image of the data export window. the google drive export option is selected

The Google Drive export option allows you to export your data as a Google Sheet to Google Drive. To use this feature, you must have a Google account to link to your Qualtrics account. For more information about linking your account and exporting your data, read our page on Exporting Response Data to Google Drive.

User Submitted Files

If you used the File Upload question type in your survey, you can use the User Submitted Files option to download all respondent-uploaded files at once. They will download to your computer in a .zip file and will include the original file names and the response ID for each response submitted.

image of the data export window. the Export User Submitted Files export option is selected

Tableau

Tableau is a data analysis application used by many organizations. Qualtrics currently offers an extension with this application that allows you to send Qualtrics data directly to Tableau. For more information visit our Tableau extension page.

JSON & Open Data Protocol

JSON (Javascript Object Notation) and Open Data Protocol exports are only available through our API Extension. See our Create Response Export documentation for exporting a file in JSON format.

Exporting Data in Different Project Types

You can export response data in many different types of projects. The steps and options described on this page apply to the following project types:

There are a few other types of projects where you can export response data. However, there are important differences to keep in mind:

Qtip: While other projects, like dashboards and directories, may also allow you to export data, this support page is solely focused on how to export survey response data from Data & Analysis. For steps on exporting other kinds of data across the XM platform, try narrowing your support site search.

FAQs