Create a date column that can tell me the date that cells in another column last changed

Steven Sawyer

I need to be able to create a date column that can tell me the date that cells in another column last changed. Could be a column type or a formula

I don't have any way of ageing a data set at scale. I can look at individual cell history, but I need to date all cells in a column and sort or filter by age.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Steven Sawyer

What I would do in this instance is set up a regular Date column then use a Record a Date workflow to record when a change is made in that other column. Here's more information https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2481986-set-the-current-date-with-record-a-date-action

Let me know if this solves for your idea!

Cheers,

Genevieve

Steven Sawyer

I am testing this solution now. There seems to be quite a few restrictions:

To know when working with change cell value

• The sheet owner’s personal account settings define the time zone of the date set.
• If someone deletes or changes a Record a date workflow’s target date field to another column type, the workflow gets disabled, and sheet admins receive an email notification.
• In cell history and activity log, you see the change attributed to Smartsheet Automation. 
• Record a date is a terminal action, and it doesn’t accept any other conditions or actions in the workflow.
• Smartsheet doesn’t currently support relative dates (5 days from today, 3 days ago).
• Record a date can’t set start and end dates that are automatically calculated by predecessor or parent roll-up dependencies.
• Each time a Record a date workflow triggers, it overwrites any previously recorded date value.
• To avoid creating endless loops, Smartsheet doesn't initiate the Record a date action when the trigger cell includes cross-sheet formulas or are linked to other cells. To work around this, use time-based automations or recurrence workflows.
• Update cell actions need time to update the sheet, especially if there are multiple workflows. 

I may have an issue with "Smartsheet doesn't initiate the Record a date action when the trigger cell includes cross-sheet formulas or are linked to other cells."

Also, it wont retro record on the 2000 rows I already have in the sheet… just on rows that change from today forward. So I would still want a formula that looks at each cell's history and records the last date a change occurred.

Ill turn it on and let it run a couple days to see what happens.

Thanks for the info.

Vahid

in SS field, we have two date columns to monitor the data updates.

1. Modified date, any modification in the line will be marked as the last modification and the date keeps changing
2. Record Created date, marks the date of the first input happened in the line, irrespective of the cells,edits, etc

WE DON'T HAVE OPTION TO SET THE DATE COLUMN FOR A PARTICULAR COULUMN/CELL.

LIKE EXCAMPLE, WE NEED TO MONITOR THE DATE OF FILLING DATA IN A PARTICULAR COLUMN-WHEN THE UPDATE HAPPENED.