Using Data Shuttle to take a Multi Select Dropdown to Update a Dropdown on Different Sheet

Trang Nguyen

I have done some research and testing around using data shuttle to update dropdown fields. Essentially I want to take what a user selects from a multi select dropdown source sheet to update a field on a target sheet so that only the options they can see in the dropdown are what was selected on the source sheet.

I'm able to set this up and the offload and upload is good. The issue I'm running into is when the multi select options are offloaded into the .csv file, it ultimately comes through with a line break. You can see this if you open the file and do a wrap text. When data shuttle takes that file to upload to the target sheet, it clumps all the options into 1 dropdown choice. Coincidentally, if you double click the field on the target sheet, change nothing and click "OK", it will then turn it into a list with multiple options.

I have also tried to solution on the back end in the .csv file like creating macros or formulas to "break up" the options in the 1 cell into individual rows. If this was possible, the upload will format the dropdown on the target sheet appropriately.

The issue are if I have 25 business units in a multi select dropdown and 12 are chosen, it would require an awfully intense excel formula AND we don't have someone standing by to do anything manually like a text to column or macro.

So my question is, does anyone know a workaround for this scenario?

1. Source Sheet: Offloading data selected from a multi select field
2. Offloading workflow in Data Shuttle
3. Uploading workflow in Data Shuttle
4. Target Sheet: Dropdown single select column (restricted list is NOT on) is updated with data selected from source sheet.

Thank in advance!

Trang Nguyen

Here is what the upload from Data Shuttle to the target sheet looks like. Instead of 3 options it's all clumped into one, but if I open the column properties, they are in a list (not one line) and when I hit OK it will go into the correctly formatted dropdown with 3 options to choose from.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Trang Nguyen

Data Shuttle uses separate rows to identify the individual values to be uploaded to a dropdown list. This means if you're exporting a single cell with multiple options selected, when it's imported into the column you'll need to open/save the column properties to have it recognize the values as separate, as you've found.

Please submit your feature request to the Product team by creating an Idea Post in the Smartsheet Product Feedback and Ideas topic here in the Community. This will allow other users to vote on your enhancement idea!

Cheers,

Genevieve