Data Shuttle - Alpha/Numeric Sort of Dropdown lists

Chuck G

Would love to have the ability to Alpha or Numeric order my Data Shuttle Offload List so then when I go to do my Upload file, the new list has been Alphabetized or put in Numerical order. This way when my end user sees their dropdown list, it's easy to read or lookup values.

Chizu Hieida

YES!!!!! I need his function!!!!! Currently, I read the community thread for workaround. (Using Power Automate/Office Script) and I'm trying this right now but struggling. 🙃 it keeps giving me error to offload data now I set up Office script. Not sure why. 😵

I have so many use of this Drop Down value update using Data shuttle to automate so many of our works!!! but I need this sort function to go with it to make sense.

Community thread:

Data Shuttle - Update Dropdowns ALPHABETICALLY

Mike TV

May 16, 2023

Hi all. I use the Update Dropdowns feature of Data Shuttle quite a bit to help save my team time when filling out forms, etc. They can quickly become an absolute mess letting Data Shuttle manage them:

https://us.v-cdn.net/6031209/uploads/NB4TYH3PJX61/image.png

If you have a moment, can you please fill out the Product Feedback form to suggest that they alphabetize our drop-down lists after Data Shuttle adds to the choices?

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/739aa75f30ca43a8a22eb53e4da7d409?Origin=help&_ga=2.193833962.654044142.1684277500-130537087.1648859136

I can't believe their support team would add such a feature without the ability to auto-sort the list. Why? Just why would you add this without adding that? Just look at the hot mess my dropdown list becomes! What an embarrassment to roll out a form to an outside company and ask them to hunt through scrambled lists for what they're looking for...

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AdamF

Hello, I added a comment in the discussion area as well, but thought copying it here might be a good idea since it's where the community is voting on the idea. Hope it helps someone:

Another workaround since Data Shuttle doesn't yet have built-in sorting… You can use a process like this: Source Sheet (messy data) > SmartSheet Report (sorted data) > SmartSheet Pivot (uses report sort) > DataShuttle.

For example, our organization is frequently updating our Contract list based on the business we win or work that is not renewed. So while there is a source sheet with all of the Contract Names, the sheet contains both old data and rows that are not sorted since the new rows come in via automation or form entry. However, we want the Contract drop-down in our other processes such as Risks to always be up-to-date and sorted alphanumerically.

Step 1) Create a report with the filters and sorts desired for the dropdown list.

Step 2) Create a Pivot with that new report as a source option. This can be a very simple pivot with the 1 row selected for the data you want, no columns, and maybe a simple count of something in that row

Please note: That since a report is the source you wouldn't be able to have the pivot update automatically upon a sheet update, but you can configure to run every hour, or every day or whatever interval is best.

Step 3) Run the new Pivot, it will create a brand new sheet in the folder you designated during setup, with the data sorted the way you want.

Step 4) Since you have a self-updating sheet now, you can use that sheet as the source for DataShuttle, you'll just likely have to filter out any blank rows and the "Grand Total" row created by the pivot process.

Chuck G

Thanks AdamF! I was wondering why so many people haven't voted for this yet. I utilize Data Shuttle and dropdown list a lot and this could save a ton of time for end users if everything was sorted.