Understanding how an entry gets associated with a user

On our support, we've seen that many Gravity Forms users are unaware that the current user ID is always stored alongside the form submission (also known as "entry") if the user filling the form is logged in on the website.

The usual method people use to capture this data is by using a hidden field with the {user} Merge Tag as the default value of that field:

The {user} Merge Tag method is very useful but unnecessary since this information is already stored as entry meta (metadata from the form submission) on the "wp_gf_entry" table inside the "created_by" column:

Which means the hidden field trick above is redundant. 

On GravityView, that information can be easily retrieved by using the {created_by} Merge Tag inside a Custom Content field:

There's plenty of information available that can be retrieved about the user who submitted the form, just because Gravity Forms stored the User ID on the entry meta.

If the user is not logged in during the form submission

If a form is submitted anonymously, then there are two methods to associate a user with that entry:

1) By manually changing the entry creator: Changing the creator of an entry in Gravity Forms.

2) If your form creates a WordPress User by using the Gravity Forms User Registration add-on, GravityView automatically associates the form submission with the newly created user. This is a GravityView-exclusive functionality. Check out this GravityKit Academy guide on Advanced User Management and CRM Functionality to know more.