Identifying current data in DataTable

Neil Egsgard

Does anyone have a good way to identify good records in DataTable?

DataTables can be updated from an external data source using Data Shuttle but there is no way to automatically remove DataTable records that are no longer in the source data. This means DataTables will contain bad data.

My current workaround is to include a "Record date" in the source data and use the DataTable Connection filter to isolate records with the appropriate "Record date". Unfortunately, Smartsheet system dates are not synched to local dates so there will be a mismatch between the "Record date" and the Smartsheet system date. This means the DataTable Connection will likely delete valid records from sheets each day during the date mismatch including deleting all record enrichments like comments and user update fields. A solution is to include an additional day in the DataTable Connection filter, which means the sheets will include invalid data.

Fixing the DataTable data quality problem has been requested in these Ideas.

• https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/108426/data-table-clean-up
• https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/112051/data-shuttle-to-datatable-replace-datatable
• https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/120945/add-delete-rows-that-dont-match-filter-criteria-option-for-datatable
  Thanks for the feedback,
  
  Neil Egsgard
  Business Solutions Architect
  Southern Alberta Institute of Technology

@Genevieve P.

Samuel Mueller

@Neil Egsgard not the cleanest or easiest solution, but I archive data (move Row) that needs to be deleted to a separate sheet, and then from that sheet I update those DataTable records with a tag that says deleted or archived or something. It's pretty frustrating, but I do believe they are working on adding more features to DataTable, but I have no idea when

Neil Egsgard

@Samuel Mueller , good solution, thank you. I hope they improve the basic functions of DataTable soon.