Change Counter Function

Flextur Mike

Hi,

I'm trying to track how often a cell changes value, is there a way to make a counter go up 1 every time a cell value changes? I would like the counter to be a cell in the same column as the cell i'm tracking changes.

I can see the history of the cell by right clicking | View Cell History, but can't use that to pull to a report to show on a dashboard...

Andrée Starå

Hi @Flextur Mike

I hope you're well and safe!

You can add multiple Condition Paths for as high as you need the counter. Still, if it's more than 10, I'd recommend adding a so-called helper sheet instead, using a Workflow combined with the Copy row action, and then using cross-sheet formulas to count how many rows have been copied over.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Flextur Mike

Working on this some more i got a subsitute that works but isn't scaleable. Setting up multiple workflows like below work, but is limited to the amount of workflows i manually set up. I set up a workflow for each qty, 1,2,3,4, etc. I can expound more if someone wants more details.

Not a solution to my problem but a work around...

Andrée Starå

Hi @Flextur Mike

I hope you're well and safe!

You can add multiple Condition Paths for as high as you need the counter. Still, if it's more than 10, I'd recommend adding a so-called helper sheet instead, using a Workflow combined with the Copy row action, and then using cross-sheet formulas to count how many rows have been copied over.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up, Awesome, or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Flextur Mike

Thanks @andree stara! This is a better workaround!

Andrée Starå

@Flextur Mike

Excellent!

Happy to help!

Lucas Rayala

@Andrée Starå, you can use some additional columns to make a counter that goes as high as you want. For instance, if you want to be able to count up to 99, you would have two hardcoded columns for the current number, call them [0-9 Current] and [0x-9x Current], and two columns that would calculate what the next number will be, called [0-9 Next] and [0x-9x Next]. I'm ignoring blanks for now, but here's how it would get set up.

The formula in [0-9 Next] would be:

=IF([0-9 Current]@row=9, 0, [0-9 Current]@row + 1)

The formula in [0x-9x Next]@row would be:

=IF([0-9 Next]@row = 0, IF([0x-9x Current]@row + 1=10, 0, [0x-9x Current]@row + 1), [0x-9x Current]@row)

Once you set this up, you can set up automations similar to your current automation, using the "Next" columns to set the "Current" columns upon change.

I actually put together a working model of this using binary (1s and 0s) at first, but while the calculations and automations are simpler, you need more columns (8 columns needed to represent numbers 0-256). Using base 10 decreases the number of columns and automations significantly!