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Merging stacks the interviews of several surveys into a new survey, as if they had been collected together. You get a single base, which you analyse, filter, crosstab and weight like any other survey. The source surveys are not modified.
Merging and comparing answer different needs:
  • Merge — add up respondents to work on a common base (for example, stack three waves to analyse a subtarget too small in each wave).
  • Compare — place surveys side by side to read the gaps between them (for example, how a tracker moves wave after wave).

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Requirements

1

A variable name on every question

The merge is performed on the variable name of each question. Every question in all selected surveys must have one. Otherwise the form rejects the merge and lists the questions at fault.
2

A unique variable name within each survey

Two questions in the same survey cannot share a variable name: the platform would not know which one to match.
3

Complete surveys

Only surveys with the Complete status (and demos) appear in the list. At least two are required.
Variable names are set in the questionnaire. Fill them in as you design it: they drive merging, survey comparison and variable import.

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Run a merge

Merging starts from the sidebar of your workspace, under Merge survey results — alongside My surveys and My dashboards, outside any survey.
1

Select the surveys to merge

Pick at least two surveys in the Surveys to merge list.
2

Set the reference survey

The reference survey acts as the blueprint of the new survey: only the questions present in the reference survey are merged. It must be one of the selected surveys.
3

Choose the owner organization

It becomes the owner of the merged survey.
4

Validate

Processing runs in the background. The new survey first appears with the Data processing status, then switches to Complete. You receive an e-mail with a direct link to its results.
Use the survey with the most complete questionnaire as reference: any question missing from the reference survey is missing from the merged survey, even if the other surveys asked it.

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Matching rules

  • Questions are matched on their variable name, wherever they sit in the questionnaire.
  • Within a question, items are matched on their label.
  • Iterations are matched on their label, then on their rank when several labels are identical.
  • Only completes are carried over.
  • An answer with no match is not carried over: it silently disappears from the merged survey.
An item label that differs from one survey to another (for example “Brand 1” and “Brand 1 B”) creates two separate items in the merged survey. To change a label without breaking the match, use the translation system: it shows the new label to respondents and keeps the old one for matching.

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The merged survey

The new survey reuses the questionnaire of the reference survey, and its title followed by regroup. Rename it if needed. It also holds a Source question, hidden to respondents, with one item per source survey (the survey title). This variable tells you where each interview comes from: filter on it to isolate one survey, or crosstab it against the questionnaire to compare the surveys inside the merged base. Sample sources sharing the same name and provider are merged, and their sample sizes added up.

Compare surveys or questions

To read the gaps between waves rather than stack them.
Last modified on August 24, 2026