Invalid data type result when joining a complex collection

csprocket777

I'm receiving an "#INVALID DATA TYPE" result with the following forumla:

=JOIN(COLLECT({LocationStrings}, {LocationStrings}, NOT(ISBLANK(@cell)), {PersonNames}, @cell = $[Person contact list]29, {ProjectStatus}, OR(@cell = $Status$5, @cell = $Status$6), {DeliveryDate}, AND(MONTH(@cell) = MONTH(TODAY()), YEAR(@cell) = YEAR(TODAY()))), ", ")

When I remove the last collection criteria, it works, however I need the extra criteria:

=JOIN(COLLECT({LocationStrings}, {LocationStrings}, NOT(ISBLANK(@cell)), {PersonNames}, @cell = $[Person contact list]29, {ProjectStatus}, OR(@cell = $Status$5, @cell = $Status$6), {DeliveryDate}), ", ")

Mike Wilday

I've seen invalid data type occur when the expected result doesn't fit the column type. Because its associated with dates, your final part of your function might be trying to return a date but its not a date column. Here is a great post on the formula errors that I keep bookmarked for reference. 

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2476176-formula-error-messages

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2476176-formula-error-messages#invaliddatatype

csprocket777

Thank you for this, I've put extra checks in to ensure I'm considering the values in the proper format, yet I'm still getting the error.

One test I did was to change the "JOIN()" to "COUNT()" to see if I even got any matching rows and I get 1. So now I'm even more confused.

csprocket777

Just to make sure I'm communicating this correctly, I've laid out the formula differently to as to understand it better.

=JOIN(

    COLLECT(

        {LocationStringField},

        {LocationStringField}, NOT(ISBLANK(@cell)), 

        {PersonNameField}, @cell = $[Person contact list]46, 

        {ProjectStatusField}, OR(@cell = $Status$5, @cell = $Status$6), 

        {DeliveryDateField}, 

            AND(

                ISDATE(@cell), 

                NOT(ISBLANK(@cell)), 

                MONTH(@cell) = MONTH(TODAY()), 

                YEAR(@cell) = YEAR(TODAY())

                ), 

        {DeliveryTypeField}, @cell = "Live"

        ), 

    ", ")

Mike Wilday

The join would be converting your results into a string... have you checked to see if the column type is set up for a text/number type? If its anything else, the result of the formula could create that error. 

sdill08

Hello!

Were you able to solve this?  I'm in the current same situation.  I need to use the JOIN(COLLECT()) Function to pull a dataset into one cell but have to run the filtering through two filters.