CONTAINS not identifying all the instances

MKRS

I wonder if someone could let me know where I'm going wrong here?

I want to know the number of instances where 'Treatment' is found in a column where

Person is Cell 32 in the Primary Column

Country is equal to Country$1

Start date is >=[Start Date]$2

End date is <=[End Date]$3

The formula I have come up with is:

=COUNTIFS({Person}, [Primary Column]$32, {Country}, Country$1, {Start Date}, >=[Start Date]$2, {End Date}, <=[End Date]$3, {Hospital}, CONTAINS("Treatment"))

The result it's giving me is 7, but it should be 36

Brian_Richardson

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/438321#Comment_438321

Since you're trying to count for combinations of specific people and specific Treatment Plans, I would setup a sheet to do that analysis.

Setup a sheet that has a column for the Person Interacted With, Country, Start/End dates (date columns), and a column for each of the Treatment Plan options.

Then setup column formulas for each Treatment Plan column like this:

=COUNTIFS({PersonInteract}, HAS(@cell,[Person Interacted With]@row), {Country}, Country@row, {Date}, >=[Start Date]@row, {Date}, <=[End Date]@row, {HospitalCourse}, HAS(@cell,"Name of column / course to search for"))

For example, in the "Discharge Plan" column the formula would be:

=COUNTIFS({PersonInteract}, HAS(@cell,[Person Interacted With]@row), {Country}, Country@row, {Date}, >=[Start Date]@row, {Date}, <=[End Date]@row, {HospitalCourse}, HAS(@cell,"Discharge Plan"))

The cross sheet references in this formula point to columns on your data sheet.

When done you should have a sheet something like this that will count for each combination that you're looking for. You can add as many rows as you need to account for as many combinations as you want to count for. I've included rows for another country too like USA.

Protonsponge

Hello MKRS, I am wondering if , @cell after treatment will help you….

=COUNTIFS({Person}, [Primary Column]$32, {Country}, Country$1, {Start Date}, >=[Start Date]$2, {End Date}, <=[End Date]$3, {Hospital}, CONTAINS("Treatment", @cell))

MKRS

Hi Protonspounge,

Tried that an it's not made a difference. Does the contains function only see the criteria if its at the start of the data in that field? Just seems strange that it's coming up with 7 instead of 36….

Protonsponge

My apologies for misleading you on this, still learning every day.

You need the expertise of @Paul Newcome for this one or @Brian_Richardson

Brian_Richardson

The CONTAINS function takes two arguments, the first is what you're looking for, the second is where you're looking. Like @Protonspounge said you need an @cell as part of the function if it's buried inside another function. When COUNTIFS goes down your sheet, it's looking at each cell in turn, and the @cell tells CONTAINS to also check that same cell, then repeat for the next, then the next.

The revised formula that Proton provided looks right, so the count issue probably stems from the criteria rather than the formula itself.

A few things to check..

• The cross cell references for Person, Country, Start Date, End Date, Hospital all need to be exactly the same length. I'm assuming you referenced entire columns with each of these, but double check.
• Check that Start Date and End Date columns in both your counting sheet and in the referenced sheet are date columns
• Contains is case sensitive so check that you're counting "Treatment" and not "treatment" or something else.

If all that is in place then it should work with the revised formula. If it's still not working then post screens of the two sheets.

Paul Newcome

Are you able to provide some screenshots of the data that you have in your formula sheet as well as some screenshots of as many rows that should be counted as you can include?

MKRS

Hi Paul,

Screenshot attached. Note that I simplified the contains search previously and used 'Understanding Treatment Plan' in the actual formulas.

I've had to cover some data due to confidentiality

.

Looks like the 7 are may be the one's with just '….POC' are the ones 'CONTAINS' is picking up???

Paul Newcome

What is the exact formula you are now using?

MKRS

Its: =COUNTIFS({PersonInteract}, [Primary Column]$32, {Country}, Country$1, {Date}, >=[Start Date]$2, {Date}, <=[End Date]$3, {HospitalCourse}, CONTAINS([Primary Column]$48, @cell))

NB. [Primary Column]$32 has the blocked out " POC" and [Primary Column]$48 contains "Understanding Treatment Plan" they are both drop downs in a list so remain identical for each instance.

Brian_Richardson

If you're using multiple selection dropdowns try HAS instead of Contains.

HAS arguments are the reverse of CONTAINS (not sure why!). HAS (range, criteria).

=COUNTIFS({PersonInteract}, [Primary Column]$32, {Country}, Country$1, {Date}, >=[Start Date]$2, {Date}, <=[End Date]$3, {HospitalCourse}, HAS(@cell,[Primary Column]$48))

MKRS

Thanks Brian, but it's still showing 7 as the result! 🤔 Would {PersonInteract}, [Primary Column]$32 also have the HAS as it's a multi dropdown? and if so would it be in it's current position or at the end?

Brian_Richardson

Ohhhh. Ok that's probably the issue. If you are trying to match to a multiple selection dropdown cell, then it's going to match only the cells that have all of the options selected.

For example if I'm trying to match to a cell where I selected A and B and C then the only cells that will be counted are ones with all three selections A and B and C. Not A or B or C.

You'll need to adjust your formula to check for each option one at a time inside an OR statement, or adjust your sheet to break out the selected options into multiple columns ie the "Has A?" column has a formula like = IF ( HAS ( [Primary Column]$32, "A"), "A")

And then use those broken-out columns in your formulas.

MKRS

Hi Brian,

I'm not great with syntax, so could you advise on the syntax for the OR statement? Where would I put that in the formula??

=COUNTIFS({PersonInteract}, [Primary Column]$32, {Country}, Country$1, {Date}, >=[Start Date]$2, {Date}, <=[End Date]$3, {HospitalCourse}, HAS(@cell,[Primary Column]$48))

Brian_Richardson

It's going to get complicated :-)

Let me check first - are you trying to count the items on your sheet when they match any of the items selected in [Primary Column]$48?

In other words, if [Primary Column]$48 has "Discharge Plan" and "Understanding Treatment Plan" selected, you want a count of all items that have EITHER of those selected in the Hospital Course Area Addressed column. Right?

Maybe also share what your end goal is with this? There may be a better way to structure things to accomplish that goal. Working with multiple selection fields in formulas gets complex.

Paul Newcome

Are you also able to provide a screenshot of the sheet that this formula is going on?

MKRS

Hi Brian,

If the country is South Korea, the entry date is within a range (between start date & end date) , they have interacted with a POC then count how many instances of "Understanding Treatment Plan"

-Country is a single selection dropdown

-Dates are date formatted fields

-POC is a multi-selection dropdown

-"Understanding Treatment Plan" is a multi-selection dropdown

Does that help?