When exporting responses in R format using “R (syntax file)”, the variable names (column names) for options in single-choice, multiple-choice, and other question types appear to have been replaced with internal identifiers.

Previously, these names followed a format such as {Question Code}_{Option Code}. This change has broken all of our R analysis scripts that rely on the previous naming convention.

The downloaded R syntax file contains the following code:

LimeSurvey Field type: F

data[, 10] <- as.numeric(data[, 10])
attributes(data)$variable.labels[10] <- "[Option A] Question 01"
data[, 10] <- factor(data[, 10], levels=c(1,0),labels=c("Yes", "Not selected"))
names(data)[10] <- "Q01__S3289"

LimeSurvey Field type: F

data[, 11] <- as.numeric(data[, 11])
attributes(data)$variable.labels[11] <- "[Option B] Question 01"
data[, 11] <- factor(data[, 11], levels=c(1,0),labels=c("Yes", "Not selected"))
names(data)[11] <- "Q01__S3290"

LimeSurvey Field type: F

data[, 12] <- as.numeric(data[, 12])
attributes(data)$variable.labels[12] <- "[Option C] Question 01"
data[, 12] <- factor(data[, 12], levels=c(1,0),labels=c("Yes", "Not selected"))
names(data)[12] <- "Q01__S3291"
....

In statements that assign column names, such as names(data)[10] <- "Q01__S3289", the option identifier does not match the answer option code configured in the attached screenshot.

CSV and Excel exports appear to retain the original column names.