Formula for counting how many times a cell has been updated

Mariann Carmen

Is there a formula that you can suggest that will count the number of times a Date has been updated in a specific cell? For example; if I have a date of 4/1/2025 and I update it to 4/21/2025, I would expect to see "2" in a cell titled "Number of times date updated". Delays can happen for various reasons and I would like to track this data.

Mariann Carmen

I'm hoping a formula can pull this data out of View Cell History for a specific Column. In the example below, I would expect the number that the formula returns is "1."

Rose Howard

How are you updating the cells? Manually or through update requests? It sounds like something that it would be useful to have a helper column running a formula in. Depending on how you're getting the data updated would change how to build the helper column formula.

Mariann Carmen

Thanks for the question @Rose Howard. Employees go into a Sheet, and make manual updates to the Date Column where the Go-Live/Delivery Date is captured.

Rose Howard

As far as I know, with manual updates, there's no clear way to capture exactly what you're looking for @Mariann Carmen. Maybe someone with more expertise than I can double check. You could potentially add an automation to capture ANY change but that might get cumbersome as I don't think it can delineate what is being changed in a row.

Some alternatives:

If you use the automation you could say, record a date.

You could Trigger based on 'When Rows are Changed'

Then Record a date:

I've used that to help me track the last time I've done something.

Thing is that's basically the same as having a column with 'Last Modified' so I doubt that would help you.

If your overall goal is simply tracking who last touched a sheet and when, adding a 'Last Modified' and 'Last Modified by' would help you, in tandem with manually checking the view cell history.

Mariann Carmen

Unfortunately @Rose Howard that isn't what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the number of times a cell that collects a date is updated (a whole number beginning with "1" (the first time a date is entered) and so on every time an update is made).

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/138033/formula-for-counting-how-many-times-a-cell-has-been-updated

Hi @Mariann Carmen @Rose Howard,

I hope you're well and safe!

Please have a look at my post below, which includes a method I developed.
Combine it with counting how many there are in the second sheet.

More info: 
https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/68589/lock-or-store-date-value-solution-without-using-zapier

Another option would be a Workflow that acts as a counter.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Rose Howard

That is awesome @Andrée Starå Great idea!

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/479475#Comment_479475

Thanks!

✅ Remember! Did my comment(s) help/answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community and me by marking it - Insightful 💡- Vote Up ⬆️ - Awesome ❤️ - or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer! I appreciate it, thanks!