Answer piping lets you reuse submitted values (answers, variables, calculated totals) inside other parts of your form and messages. It’s a simple way to make forms feel personal, show summaries, and display calculated results like scores or prices.
Common examples:
Show a respondent’s name in a message (“Thanks, @name”).
Display a calculated total on the ending page (“Total payable: @total_price”).
Add the same data to confirmation emails, PDFs, or AI prompts.
Follow these easy steps:
1. Create your form or survey and add any field you want
You can either create your form/survey from scratch or select from 200+ templates.
Answer piping works for all field types, so choose the one that works for you.
2. Add an ID for the field that you want to pipe the answer
Answer piping works by referencing a field ID (or variable ID). If a field doesn’t have an ID, there’s nothing to “call” later.
Click the field you want to reference (for example, “Full name”).
In the field settings (right sidebar), find Field ID.
Enter a clear ID like
name,company, ortotal_score.
⚠️ If you change an ID later, update it everywhere you’ve used it (content blocks, ending pages, emails, PDFs), Otherwise, piping will stop working.
3. Insert answer piping in your form
You can pipe values into places like:
A question title
A field description
A Content block (great for summaries)
The ending page message
How to write it:
When you want to pipe an answer you can use either format: {{field_id}} or @field_id
Example:
Set an ID for your first question, for example
name.In another field’s title or description, insert
{{name}}or@name.When someone fills out the form, their answer to the first question is automatically shown wherever you placed that piping text.
4. Show a total score or price with answer piping
If you’re calculating values (like a score or total price), you’ll usually store them in a variable field, then display the variable using its ID.
Example:
Variable ID:
total_scoreEnding page content: “Your total score: @total_score”
4: Use answer piping in other places (emails, PDFs, AI prompts)
Answer piping isn’t limited to the form itself. You can reuse the same field IDs to personalize messages and outputs across your workflow.
Use it in email templates:
In custom email templates, you can pull values using @field_id (for example: “Hi @name”).
🔗 Learn more: How to create and send custom email templates
Use it in PDF templates:
In the PDF builder, you can insert field or variable IDs (for example @client_name, @total_price) so the generated PDF includes real submission data.
🔗 Learn more: How to create PDF templates to turn responses into documents
Use it in AI prompts
If you’re generating AI follow-ups or summaries, answer piping lets you pass user inputs into the prompt (for example, “Customer name: @name”).
🔗 Learn more: How to dynamically pull form data into custom emails, PDFs, and AI prompts
Troubleshooting
If piping isn’t showing the value you expect, check these first:
The referenced field/variable has an ID and it matches what you typed.
You’re using a supported format (
@idor{{id}}in forms).You didn’t rename the ID after adding it to emails/PDFs/logic.
⚠️ If you’re piping a calculated variable (like total_price) but it’s empty or wrong, double-check the calculation logic and make sure the variable starts with a default value (often 0).
🔗 Learn more: How to use logic & calculation basics in Formaloo
You can see different types of answer piping in different forms in our template gallery.