The CODE questionnaire (COPD detection questionnaire), a simple, binary response scale (yes/no), screening questionnaire, was developed for the identification of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We conducted a survey of 468 subjects with a smoking history in 10 public hospitals in Argentina. Patients with a previous diagnosis of COPD, asthma and other respiratory illness were excluded. Items that measured conceptual domains in terms of characteristics of symptoms, smoking history and demographics data were considered. 96 (20.5%) subjects had a diagnosis of COPD according to the 2010 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease strategy document. The variables selected for the final questionnaire were based on univariate and multivariate analyses and clinical criteria. Finally, we selected the presence or absence of six variables (age ≥50 years, smoking history ≥30 pack-years, male sex, chronic cough, chronic phlegm and dyspnoea). Of patients without any of these six variables (0 points), none had COPD. The ability of the CODE questionnaire to discriminate between subjects with and without COPD was good (the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.75). Higher scores were associated with a greater probability of COPD. The CODE questionnaire is a brief, accurate questionnaire that can identify smoking individuals likely to have COPD.