Dashboard functions and Break By

When you build a chart widget on a presentation dashboard, you combine three ideas:

1. Variable -a question from dashboard setup (for example Q1).
2. Function -how to aggregate answers on that variable (count, exists, or nps where allowed).
3. Break By (optional) -split the metric by another variable, or by the same question to show one row or bar per answer option.

This page explains what each function does, how Break By changes the result, and how multi-select questions behave differently from single-select.

Where to configure

In the dashboard builder, open Add widget or Edit widget → Add metrics (variable + function) → Select Break By (optional). The same metric rules apply on the canvas and on the add/edit widget page.

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Widget types and supported functions

Widget type	COUNT	EXISTS	NPS	Break By
Bar / pie / donut / line / area chart	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
NPS chart	No	No	Yes (only)	No
Rich text (embedded metrics)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Per metric

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COUNT, EXISTS, and NPS support by question type

COUNT and EXISTS are available for all answer-storing question types in dashboard setup on bar, pie, donut, line, area, and rich-text metric widgets (not on the dedicated NPS chart widget, which uses NPS only).

Family	COUNT	EXISTS	NPS	Break By (as dimension)	Break By = same question
Choice (single_choice, multiple_choice, dropdowns)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes -distribution
NPS scale (nps_scale, nps_advanced)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NPS multiple row bindable	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
NPS advanced inner follow-up	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Rating (rating_single, rating_advanced)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Text, upload, media, contact, form test	Yes -# respondents who answered	Yes	No	No	No
Text multiple / upload multiple row bindables	Yes (per row)	Yes	No	No	No
Ranking (all ranking types)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Parent text_multiple / upload_multiple (no row ref)	No	No	No	No	No
Parent nps_multiple / rating_multiple (no row ref)	No	No	No	No	No

How to read COUNT on presence types

Text, upload, media, contact, and form-test variables measure whether someone answered, not a distribution of answer text or files.

Configuration	COUNT result
No Break By	Total respondents with a non-empty, countable answer (empty and N/A excluded).
Break By = another question	Respondents who answered the value question, grouped by break-by segments (for example contact submissions per region).
Break By = same question	Not supported -there is no option list to split on. Use Break By on a choice, NPS, rating, or ranking variable instead.

When to use which function

• COUNT -when you need “how many” (totals or counts per segment).
• EXISTS -when you only need yes/no (1 / 0) per segment or overall.

Contact information is one dashboard variable for the whole question (not separate variables per field). Contact can be the value in a metric (for example COUNT(Contact) broken by Region) but cannot be chosen as a Break By dimension.

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How to read COUNT, EXISTS, and Break By

Function	No Break By	Break By = other question	Break By = same question
COUNT	One total	One row or bar per segment	One row or bar per answer option
EXISTS	1 or 0	0 / 1 per segment	0 / 1 per option
NPS	NPS score + promoter/passive/detractor segments (NPS chart or NPS() in rich text only)	-	-

On charts, a scalar result is one number; a series result is one value per break-by label. NPS never uses Break By on the NPS chart widget.

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Choice question types (COUNT + EXISTS)

These rules apply to choice variables for COUNT and distribution Break By:

Question type	Respondent can select
Single choice / dropdown (single)	One option
Multiple choice / dropdown (multiple)	One or more options

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Functions available today

Function	API value	What it measures	Break By allowed?	Widget types
COUNT	count	How many answers count toward the metric	Yes	Charts, rich text
EXISTS	exists	Whether any countable answer exists (1 or 0)	Yes	Charts, rich text
NPS	nps	Net Promoter Score on NPS scale variables	No	NPS chart; NPS() tokens in rich text

COUNT

The default function for most charts.

Configuration	Result
Variable only (no Break By)	One number -how many respondents gave a countable answer on that question (empty and N/A are excluded).
Break By = same question	Distribution chart -one bar per answer option. This is the standard way to show “how answers are split.”
Break By = another question	One bar per break-by option -respondents who answered the value question, grouped by the break-by question (for example satisfaction by region).

EXISTS

A yes/no presence flag:

• No Break By: returns 1 if at least one respondent gave a countable answer on the value question; 0 otherwise.
• With Break By: returns a series of 0 or 1 per break-by dimension -1 when at least one respondent in that bucket answered the value question (or when that option was ever selected for same-question break-by).

For answer distributions, prefer COUNT with Break By = same question. Show percent on EXISTS series uses binary percent (100% / 0% per bar). Show-zero and show-percent toggles appear when Break By is set.

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Break By in practice

Break By does not change which survey responses are included. It only changes how the result is grouped on the chart.

flowchart LR
  V[Value variable + Function] --> R{Break By?}
  R -->|No| S[Scalar -one metric]
  R -->|Same question| D[Series -one bar per answer option]
  R -->|Other question| X[Series -one bar per break-by option]

Common author goals

Goal	Function	Break By	Chart shape
How many people answered?	COUNT	-	Single value
Answer distribution	COUNT	Same question	Bar per option
Metric by segment (region, team, …)	COUNT	Other question	Bar per segment
Did anyone answer at all?	EXISTS	-	1 or 0
Presence per segment	EXISTS	Other question	0/1 per segment
How many submitted contact info?	COUNT	Other question (e.g. Region)	Count per segment
How many answered (free text)?	COUNT	-	Single total

Same question = distribution

In XEBO-style dashboards, answer distribution is not a separate function. It is COUNT with Break By = the same variable as the value.

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Multi-select questions

For multiple choice and multi-select dropdown, one respondent can pick several options. With Break By = same question, COUNT counts selections per option (if one person picks A and B, both A and B increase by 1).

Function	No Break By	Break By = same question
COUNT	Unique respondents with at least one selection	Selections per option
EXISTS	1 if any option was selected	Per option: 1 if ever selected, else 0

Example: 3 respondents -R1 selects A+B, R2 selects A, R3 selects B+C.

Option	COUNT (distribution)
A	2 (R1 + R2)
B	2 (R1 + R3)
C	1 (R3)

Use COUNT when bars should reflect how often each option was chosen (including multi-select totals per option).

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Display options (not functions)

These settings affect labels on the chart, not the underlying aggregation:

Option	Effect
Show count	Bars show raw numbers (default).
Show percent	Bars show percentage of the total (for series / distribution charts).
Show zero values	Include answer options with 0 responses so the full option list appears on the axis.

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Functions planned for later

The product roadmap follows the XEBO function list. These are not available in the dashboard builder yet:

Function	Requires
SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX, CSAT	Score points on each answer option in the survey builder (same idea as XEBO “Recode”)
DIFF, MULTIPLY, DIVIDE, SQRT, FLOOR	Formula-style widgets + score points

When score points are enabled on choice options in the survey design, each option can carry a numeric value used later for averages and sums. The dashboard engine will read those values from the pinned survey version linked in dashboard setup.

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Tips

1. Distribution chart → COUNT + Break By = same question.
2. Segment comparison → COUNT + Break By = another setup variable.
3. Multi-select option totals → COUNT + Break By = same question.
4. After you change survey options (add/remove/reorder), re-save dashboard setup if you use a pinned response scope so labels stay aligned.

See also

• Setup and sources -pinned design version, response scope, and stale question handling.