Predecessor from another sheet

Francois Billaut

I have 2 timeline sheets A and B, in A I would like to include a predecessor located in sheet B. I have tried to include a row in sheet A representing the task from sheet B (task description, start date, end date, duration). I simply used the INDEX function to copy cells from sheet B into sheet A. That works for columns formatted as text but I don't seem to be able to have a function in the date column. What is the right way of doing this ?

Adam Murphy

What do you mean that you cannot have a function/formula in a date column? I used index/match or index/collect to retrieve values from secondary sheets all the time, including in date fields. What error are you seeing? Can you share your formula?

Francois Billaut

thanks Adam, let me rephrase that; the function is not working in the start date column (it does work for a column formatted with date).

what I was trying to do was to copy from Sheet B a few cells including start date, end date, duration and paste that in a new row in sheet A. Then my plan was to simply use that line as any other line in sheet A. A task can then have for predecessor the task in the pasted line

Adam Murphy

HI Francois, not 100% sure I am following you but I think you are trying to use the values retrieved from sheet B via index formula into a row in sheet A. Are you saying that this works for other fields but specifically not for your start date field? Does the value not get indexed (retrieved)? Is there an error message?

Sorry if I am completely misunderstanding.

Humashankar

Great Insight !!

Francois Billaut

Sorry for the delay Adam,

yes I am trying to retrieve the values of 1 row from Sheet A (task, start date, finish date and assignee) using the function INDEX

in Sheet B, in column task, i type "=INDEX(" which brings the pop up with "reference another sheet" and I can select the cell that I need (the task of Sheet A on the row I am interested in)

if i repeat this for Sheet A cell called start date, when I type "=INDEX(" in the column start date of Sheet B, it does not bring up the pop up. I think it may be because the start dates are used by Smartsheet for schedule calculation but I am not sure.

Maybe I am doing something wrong here or maybe there is another good way to do this ?

Adam Murphy

If you copy the formula from task field into the start date field on sheet B does it work (bringing you the task from sheet A again)? If so, try editing it and see if you get the popup then. You can also create the cross-sheet reference by right-clicking any cell and manage references, they you can just type in your reference name into your existing formula. Hope this helps.