Multiselect Drop Down (Columns) and Export (Excel) or API

Susan Swisher

We have several multiselect drop down columns in our sheets that get either exported to Excel or get sent to other systems via an API; when it exports or the other "systems" receive the data that field / cell (which has multiple items) will not separate the items by anything (not a comma, colon, space, etc.). WHY? The system it is then reading into (another database or report) makes it impossible for figure out what the field is. For example:

The field is Compound Name and the user selects:

Iron
Nickel
Bronze

Exports to Excel or API and it looks like this:

IronNickelBronze

HELP

😒

Paul Newcome

CHAR(10) is what Smartsheet uses for a line break. I am not sure if CHAR(10) would be exactly what you look for using the API, or if you would look for something a little different. Regardless of language, it is a line break on the back-end.

Paul Newcome

There is a line break stored in the data. You will see notice this if you enable text wrapping in the Excel file. If the database you are pushing it into does not have a text wrapping feature, you should be able to leverage the CHAR(10) character as the delimiter between the selected options.

Susan Swisher

@Paul Newcome Assuming they use CHAR(10) on their side; CHAR(10) is just code for Line Break (correct)? You know I had to look this up. I am not a programmer, at all.

Paul Newcome

CHAR(10) is what Smartsheet uses for a line break. I am not sure if CHAR(10) would be exactly what you look for using the API, or if you would look for something a little different. Regardless of language, it is a line break on the back-end.