Last updated: 2 Jul 2026

smart-answers: Question types

checkbox_question

• User input: Choose zero to many options from a list of options.
• Validation: Must be in the list of options.
• Response: String containing comma-separated list of chosen options.
• Can specify none_option in flow definition to represent a "none" answer. This ensures the user has selected at least one checkbox before continuing, and that the "none" option is not selected alongside any other option. GOV.UK Frontend enforces this in the browser; the server-side check catches submissions made with JavaScript disabled. A default error message is provided, which a flow can override with text_for :error_none_not_exclusive.

country_select

• Options:
  • exclude_countries: Optional. Array of countries to exclude from the list.
  • include_uk: Optional. Boolean indicating whether to include 'united-kingdom' in the list.
  • additional_countries: Optional. Array of countries to add to the list.
• User input: Choose a single country.
• Validation: Must be in the list of countries.
• Response: String containing the chosen country.

date_question

• User input: Choose a single date.
• Validation: Must be a valid date.
• Response: Date object.

year_question

• User input: Choose a single year.
• Validation: Must be a valid date in format YYYY that can be parsed as a valid date.
• Response: String of year extracted from Date object.

money_question

• User input: Enter a money amount.
• Validation: Must be a number.
• Response: Money object.

radio

• User input: Choose a single option from a list of options.
• Validation: Must be in the list of options.
• Response: String containing the chosen option.
• Can remove options.

radio_with_intro

• User input: Choose a single option from a list of options.
• Validation: Must be in the list of options.
• Response: String containing the chosen option.
• Can remove options.

postcode_question

• User input: Enter a postcode.
• Validation: Must be a valid postcode.
• Response: String containing a normalised postcode (e.g. "wc2b6nh" becomes "WC2B 6NH").

salary_question

• User input: Enter an Amount and associated Period.
• Validation: Amount must be a valid Money object and Period must be one of 'year', 'month' or 'week'.
• Response: Salary object.

value_question

• Options:
  • parse: Optional. One of Integer, :to_i, Float or :to_f
• User input: Enter any text.
• Validation (depends on the parse option):
  • Integer: Must be a number.
  • :to_i: Should be a number but non numbers are valid.
  • Float: Must be a number.
  • :to_f: Should be a number but non numbers are valid.
  • <anything-else>: No validation.
• Response (depends on the parse option):
  • Integer: Integer.
  • :to_i: Integer (Non-numeric input returns 0).
  • Float: Float.
  • :to_f: Float (Non-numeric input returns 0.0).
  • <anything-else>: String containing the user input.