The terms "flattened" and "unflattened" refer to how data is displayed in a Results report table. Generally, flattened data displays record information in a single row, while unflattened data generates a new row for each field response per record.

Continue reading below to learn more about flattened and unflattened data.

Flattened data is information stored in individual records. For example, each field on your Participant Profile form can be pulled into a report table as its own object and column. A Tier 1 record will only have a single row and display their responses to the fields in the subsequent columns.

This should be used when reporting on specific answers to questions, such as your participants' demographics. When selecting a universe (or data source) for a new Results report, you must select a universe with your database ID in the name to access flattened demographics.

Note: In some cases, flattened data is not updated live and takes some time to sync to Results after data entry.

Unflattened data stores all the information in your database in a "Question/Answer" pair format. To continue our example, unflattened demographics from your Participant Profile form are not available to pull into a table as its own object or column. Instead, a single Field Name column will list every field in the form as a new row, and the Record Values columns will list a participant's answers to each question in the appropriate rows.

This should be used when aggregating or totaling data. Selecting any of the Standard universes as a data source when creating a new report will provide these unflattened "Question/Answer" fields.

Note: Unflattened demographic data is always available in real time, but unflattened Tier 2 record responses are not. Instead, they're populated into Results by a queue system that feeds Tier 2 record responses through every few minutes. 
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It's also possible to use a variable, which is an object created within a report as opposed to being generated from an existing form, to manually flatten unflattened data. To learn more about this, click here.