Counting unique values over different date ranges

Crystal B

Pretty new to SS, I've only been working with it for less than 2 weeks.  I have a sheet with pto requests, I need to count the number of team members that have submitted a quest in a quarter or a year or whatever date range I need.  Team members can and have submitted more than 1 request per quarter/year ect.  So basically I need to count the number of unique team members submitting a request within a certain date range.  Help!

L_123

This is rather complex to do, and it would help to see how you have the sheet organized in order to develop a formula for it. Depending on how you have the sheet you might need a helper column. Either way if you want to have some manipulation of the date range you will need to have some cells either off to the side in new columns or in the pre-existing date row for inputs. If you reply with a snapshot of your current page i can show you some ways to make this work.

Crystal B

Thanks Luke.  Please see a screenshot below.  

L_123

I was thinking about this, and have you tried the in-sheet filters or reports? Those would be much easier than doing a formula for this. You can definitely do a formula, but it would add several layers of complication for a very similar result.

 

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/504659-using-filters-to-show-or-hide-sheet-data

J. Craig Williams

Filters or Reports won't help counting.

Unless the count is not a recurring question, and even then it requires extra steps.

Craig 

L_123

I was thinking if there are only 5 or six its easy check. Create a handful of filter criteria specifying flexible date ranges, then eyeball or highlight them. If there are a bunch, then a formula might be the solution.

The only option for formulas I can think of is a helper column, which could be messed up if someone moves stuff around in the sheet.

L_123

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=914262ea28e5411daa17c1e765167611

 

This doesn't solve the problem that names can repeat, but it does parse out the information in a way that you can select the date range. Let me know what you think.

L_123

solved the issue that the names repeat. it does get rid of the data where someone has multiple selections inside of the range though so it might be somewhat misleading.