Reference or copy a column in one sheet to another sheet automatically

jvillarroya

Hi,

I am trying to figure out a way to automatically get specific columns in one sheet, into another sheet

I was originally looking at using a workflow to copy the rows over, but I only wanted to copy a subset of the columns which doesn't look to be possible. Then I started looking at cross-sheet references, but the posts that I have found say to use INDEX/MATCH, but I don't have any reference values to MATCH against on the second sheet.

Some posts say to use an Autonumber column then populate that in the second sheet, the problem with that is that is now a manual step which is undesirable.

Is there any way to accomplish this?

Paul Newcome

If you don't need to manually enter more data in additional columns, can you use a Row Report instead?

Sandy Drew

If you can provide more context on what you're trying to accomplish, I might be able to provide a better recommendation. Otherwise, INDEX/MATCH or INDEX/COLLECT can help when you need to return values from the other sheet based on matching values or specific criteria being met.

If you are not evaluating any criteria, you can just use an INDEX function alone. The below just references a random column, and is asking Smartsheet to return the value in the 5th row of that column. If you want to look at multiple columns as a range, you can also use the column_index portion of the Index function.

=INDEX({Other Sheet Column}, 5)

jvillarroya

Hi Sandy,

I have Sheet A, that has a "Name" Column I want to automatically copy all the rows in the Name Column to a Name Column in Sheet B without any user interaction, Sheet B only has Column "Name" in it and nothing else.

In your example of

=INDEX({Other Sheet Column}, 5)

That will only grab a specific row, and I don't want to have to explicitly specify each row.

Does that make sense?

Paul Newcome

What is the end result for this list? Are you planning on adding more data into other columns based on the names in each row, or is it just meant to be a list of names?

jvillarroya

I'm trying to oversimplify and isolate the one piece that I need, but the end result is really to automatically copy a subset of data from Sheet A to Sheet B, and then the subset of data in Sheet B will get integrated with our Snowflake data lake. I'm still trying to find out "how" that Snowflake integration works, so I don't know if there is capability to pull from Sheet A directly, but I was asked to get certain columns into a separate sheet automatically.

Paul Newcome

If you don't need to manually enter more data in additional columns, can you use a Row Report instead?

jvillarroya

Oh doing a quick look a Row Report might give us what we need, I will look into it further. Do you know if a Report can typically integrate with external applications like a regular grid/sheet.

Paul Newcome

I depends on how you are integrating, but generally speaking, yes.