JOIN COLLECT Cross-Sheet Formula Not Returning Content

Lori Flanigan

Happy 2024, everyone!

I'm trying to find the error in a JOIN(COLLECT) cross-sheet formula and am overlooking something. Here's the setup:

Sheet 1 - The JOIN(COLLECT) cross-sheet formula is in the Status History field.

Sheet 2 - The helper sheet where a column formula is used in the Status History field to combine the Status and Status Update Date.

The JOIN(COLLECT) cross-sheet formula in Sheet 1 is supposed to pull all the content from the Status History field in Sheet 2, but the formula is not pulling any content from the Status History field. The formula is:

=JOIN(COLLECT({Sheet 1-Status History}, {Sheet 1-ID}, ID@row), CHAR(10))

Thanks in advance for your help!

Lori

Paul Newcome

How exactly are the ID columns in both sheets being populated?

Lori Flanigan

ID fields in Sheet 1 and in Sheet 2 are autonumber fields that are in sync.

Each row in Sheet 1 copies to Sheet 2 when Status Updated Date is completed.

Paul Newcome

I'm not sure I follow.

Lori Flanigan

The numbers in the ID fields in both sheets are set as autonumber fields. Those fields are in sync, meaning the autonumbers match.

Paul Newcome

Do any of those numbers have a leading zero?

Lori Flanigan

No leading zeros.

Paul Newcome

Are you able to provide screenshots of both sheets that show a set of numbers that should be matching but are not?

Lori Flanigan

The screenshots in my original post are the exact data and field names in my sheets. Is there other information needed?

Paul Newcome

Is it possible to see the data in the actual sheets though? Even some sample entries would be fine, but it would be helpful to see them in Smartsheet itself.

Lori Flanigan

Thanks, Paul.

I've heard this morning from Smartsheet support that the autonumber field was being read as text because the numerical places was changed from 0 to 4 to start with 1000 as the first number. Apparently autonumber fields must be left with 0 numerical places to be read as numbers.

Once the autonumber field was updated, the formula worked; however, I'm certainly submitting enhancement requests to change the flawed design of the autonumber field so it reads numbers as numbers regardless of the number of numerical places.