Action Tags

Action tags are special features that begin with the '@' sign that can be placed inside a field's Field

Annotation. Each action tag has a corresponding action that is performed for the field when displayed

on data entry forms and survey pages.

A full list of the action tags that can be used in REDCap:

datetime_seconds validation, in which you may specify (if needed) the event and

repeating instance - e.g., @CALCDATE([baseline_event][visit_date], 7, 'd'). The

second parameter represents the offset number amount that should be added

or subtracted. It can be a decimal number or integer. Tip: To subtract (i.e., go

backwards in time), use a negative number. The third parameter represents the

units of the offset amount, which will be represented by the following options:

'y' (years, 1 year = 365.2425 days), 'M' (months, 1 month = 30.44 days), 'd'

(days), 'h' (hours), 'm' (minutes), 's' (seconds). The unit option must be wrapped

in quotes or apostrophes. NOTE: Both the source field and the result field must

be a text field with date, datetime, or datetime_seconds validation. It is

result as text, typically performed with an if(x,y,z) function - e.g.,

@CALCTEXT(if([gender]='1', 'male', 'female')). NOTE: It is important to realize

that a field with @CALCTEXT will not be editable on the survey page or data

entry form, and the field will function almost exactly like a normal calculated

field, in which its value may get updated via a data import, when running Data

Quality rule H, or in real-time during normal data entry on a form or survey. If

desired, it is possible to return the value as a number - e.g., @CALCTEXT(if([age]

>= 18, 'adult', 5*[other_field])). Also, while it is possible to use static text (in

quotes), field variables, or Smart Variables as the return values of the IF function

- e.g., @CALCTEXT(if([age] >= 18, [dob], [event-label]) - it is NOT possible to pipe

data saved for it. For text fields, you may even perform Piping inside the default

although PDFs will be displayed with a 300 pixel height by default. If you wish to

manually set the width and/or height of the image/PDF, you may put the

width/height values inside parentheses after the action tag in the following

manner: @INLINE(width) or @INLINE(width,height). The width/height can be a

percentage value (e.g., 50%) or a number representing size in pixels (e.g., 400).

Thus @INLINE(50%) will display an image at 50% size for the area in which it is

contained on the page, and @INLINE(400,100) would display the image always at

400px tall and 100px wide. To make an inline PDF appear taller on the page, you

might use @INLINE(100%,600) since 300px is the default height for inline PDFs.

Note: The @INLINE action tag also works if the File Upload field is embedded

the Project Setup page), this action tag will disable the missing data code

the desired value should be inside single or double quotes. For text fields, you

may pipe and concatenate values from other fields in the project - e.g.,

@SETVALUE='Name: [first_name] [last_name], DOB: [dob]'. For checkbox fields,

simply separate multiple checkbox values with commas - e.g.,

@SETVALUE='1,3,[other_field:value]'. NOTE: The piped value does *not* get

applied during any data imports (via API or Data Import Tool) but only operates

when viewing survey pages and data entry forms. NOTE: A field with

@SETVALUE will have its value updated ONLY when the page loads, which means

that its value will not be updated in real-time if you modify other fields on the

same page that are piped into the @SETVALUE tag. NOTE: If being used on a

':value' to the variable being piped - e.g., @SETVALUE='[my_dropdown:value]'.

(In earlier versions of REDCap, the @SETVALUE action tag went by the name

@PREFILL, which still works equivalently to @SETVALUE for backward

a survey, the value will be '[survey respondent]'. Once the value is captured, it

record to be sent to the app so that they are viewable in the app when editing the