Google forms - Autofill a multiple choice survey

I've created this psychology survey out on a google form. It has about 20 multiple choice questions apart from the usual email, name etc. So you see there aren't any right/wrong answers as such. How do I fake the results, or create, say, 50 form submissions? Forgive my ignorance but, will the results be in a Google spreadsheet? Should I just fill in 50 details on a Google spreadsheet then?

2 Answers 2

@Mogsdad's answer references a url-based solution, in which your script has no idea what kind of answers can be made for a given question (or how many questions, etc), which could be problematic in certain use cases.

You can programmatically create responses for a Google Form, using the Forms Service, which allows you to randomly select possible answers from the available choices, among other things (such as referencing a predefined library of "written" answers, e.g. for text / paragraph answers).

An example, that assumes you have a multiple-choice-only test, with a non-constant number of choices for each question:

function foo() < const form = FormApp.openById("some form id"); const randomSubs = [], nSubs = 50; while (randomSubs.length < nSubs) randomSubs.push(createRandomSubmission_(form).submit()); // doAwesomeAnalysis(randomSubs); // etc. >// Constructs a random response for the given form, and returns it to the caller (e.g. for submission, etc). function createRandomSubmission_(form) < const resp = form.createResponse(); const questions = form.getItems().filter(isAnswerable_); questions.forEach(function (question) < var answer = getRandomAnswer_(question); resp.withItemResponse(answer); >); return resp; > var iTypes = FormApp.ItemType; function isAnswerable_(item, index, allItems) < const iType = item.getType(); switch (iType) < case iTypes.MULTIPLE_CHOICE: case iTypes.CHECKBOX: /** add more type cases here as you implement the relevant answer generator */ return true; default: return false; >> // Uses the item type to call the appropriate answer generator. function getRandomAnswer_(q) < const qType = q.getType(); switch (qType) < case iTypes.MULTIPLE_CHOICE: return getRandomMultipleChoiceAnswer_(q.asMultipleChoiceItem()); /** add more type cases + handlers here as you implement the relevant answer generator */ default: throw new TypeError("Answering questions of type '" + qType + "' is not yet implemented"); >> // Uniformly samples possible choices (including the "other" option, if enabled). // Returns the item's ItemResponse function getRandomMultipleChoiceAnswer_(mcItem) < const choices = mcItem.getChoices(); const i = Math.floor( Math.random() * (choices.length + mcItem.hasOtherOption()) ); return mcItem.createResponse( (i < choices.length) ? choices[i] : getRandomMCOtherOption_(mcItem) ); >function getRandomMCOtherOption_(mcItem) < // This function will be highly dependent on your situation. // It's your choice how you identify the MC item to determine what an "other" option could // be for a given question. getTitle() and getIndex() may be useful too. switch (mcItem.getId()) < default: throw new Error("Not Implemented Yet"); >>