How does report display information from the sheets?

Vivien Chong

Does anyone know how this work?

I am extracting report from 5 sheets, let's say, Sheet A, B, C, D and E.

In the report, I couldn't understand how the data is being displayed (the sequence).

Before any sorting, the information are displayed randomly, for example Sheet C, D, B, A, E.

Does anyone has any idea, how does this work?  Does report extract data randomly?  Is there a pattern? 

I would like to display the information according to Sheet, A, B, C, D and E (of course the sheet name is not alphabetical order as illustrated for example here).

Kindly advice. Thanks.

Andrée Starå

Hi Vivien,

To make sure that it sorts like you want to I'd recommend adding a helper column to the sheets with the sheet name and then you can use that to sort the report.

Would that work?

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

Paul Newcome

There is a default column in all reports that will display the sheet name.

 

If those sheet names are not alphabetically in the order you want them in, then you will need the helper column on each sheet.

Andrée Starå

Yes, how could I forget about that? I probably thought that it wasn't in alphabetical order. 

 

Paul Newcome

That's when the helper column would come in, but I wouldn't use sheet names. I would use A, B, C, D or 1, 2, 3, 4. Haha

Andrée Starå

Haha! I, of course, meant that the sheet names weren't possible to use as a method to get it in the right order. 

As I sometimes say,

Don't listen to what I say, understand what I mean! ?

Paul Newcome

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Vivien Chong

Thanks all!!  Appreciate your feedback.  I get what you mean. haha..

Just trying to figure out is Smartsheet Report pulling out the information randomly from the sheets.

Anyway, understood that I either need to do something with the sheet name or add a helper column.

Thanks guys!

Andrée Starå

Excellent!

Happy to help!

Paul Newcome

Happy to help! 

 

I am not sure if it is really random, but I can only guess at the default order in which it pulls. I haven't done a lot of testing with multiple rows from multiple sheets to try to figure it out.

Deepa SP

Thank you, this post is useful. I have the same query. When I have chosen the sheets in a specific order for reporting, its strange that Smartsheet has a different logic to sequence the report order. I will use the helper column sort the sequence.

Andrée Starå

@Deepa SP

You're more than welcome!

Glad to hear that is useful.