Radios
A set of options where exactly one may be chosen, all visible at once.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data:
- Datastores — the datastore, then Table Designer to add or edit a field
What it stores
A whole number identifying the chosen option, which is why it groups and reports cleanly.
It joins, so it reports well
Single-select types are joinable — the stored value points at one thing, so a report can join through it and group by the source record. That is what makes "count by category" a query rather than an exercise.
Visibility is the point
Radios show every option without the user doing anything. That matters when the options themselves carry information — somebody choosing a priority benefits from seeing that "urgent" exists and what sits either side of it.
A dropdown hides that until clicked, and a user who does not know the range cannot judge their answer against it.
Where the limit is
About five or six. Beyond that the form becomes a wall of options, scanning gets slower rather than faster, and a dropdown is the better control.
The test is whether somebody can take in all the options at a glance. If they have to read down a list, you have passed the point.
Order them meaningfully
If the options have a natural order — low to high, first to last — use it. Alphabetical ordering on an ordered set is actively unhelpful: "High, Low, Medium" tells the reader nothing about the scale and makes them think.
Radios or a dropdown?
- Radios — few options, and seeing them helps the decision.
- Dropdown — more options, or the choice is routine and the list is just a lookup.
They are hard to unset
Once a radio is chosen, there is usually no way back to nothing. If "no answer" is a legitimate state, include it as an explicit option rather than expecting people to find a way to clear the field.
Defaults change answers
A pre-selected radio is an answer, and a meaningful proportion of people will leave it. That is fine where the default is genuinely the common case and wrong where you want a considered choice.
For anything where the answer matters — a consent question, a risk rating — start with nothing selected and make the field required.
Manual options here
Radios take their options from the field definition rather than from another datastore. That suits a small fixed set; where the options are themselves records you maintain, a database-backed dropdown is the better fit.
Worked example
A triage form uses radios for priority — low, medium, high, urgent — in that order, with nothing pre-selected and the field required. Seeing all four helps the assessor calibrate, and the absence of a default means every record carries a decision rather than an accepted suggestion.
Recommendations
- Five or six options at most.
- Order by meaning, not alphabetically.
- Include an explicit "none" if that is a real answer.
- No default where you want a considered choice.