Parent/Child Hierarchy when Building Reports
Hi - I'm trying to build a report for "Upcoming Tasks" in the next 7 days. I would like to show parent and child hierarchy in the report. However, I am not able to figure out the logic in the report builder? Any help will be appreciated.
Answers
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Reports do not show indentation. I use a helper column on the source sheet that inputs a number based on the row's level of hierarchy and then use conditional formatting to apply the same format to each of the same hierarchy levels. This "color coding" helps visually.
Being able to see the indentation in reports would certainly be nice though. Feel free to SUBMIT A PRODUCT ENHANCEMENT REQUEST when you have a chance.
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Hi Thank you soo much for the feedback. I'm learning Smartsheet as I'm doing it now. Will you be able to send me a screenshot of the numbering system you are referring to? that will really help me understand how you do this as suggested. Thank You
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You would insert a new column (it can be later hidden to keep the sheet looking clean). Then you would use a formula such as
=IF(COUNT(CHILDREN([Other Column Name]@row)) > 0, COUNT(ANCESTORS([Other Column Name]@row)))
This will only output a number for parent rows which will be based on which level of hierarchy the row is. Drag-fill this down all of the rows, and you should be good to go.
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Hello. This is helpful, thank you. I wish the reports would reflect the hierarchies.
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Here's my parent row workaround:
"> Insert a symbol then 2 or more spaces before TEXT"
Add this to your rows, then you'll see indentations
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@Thai La How were you able to get this to work? When I enter additional spaces, Smartsheet still only displays 1 space.
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In the Smartsheet, I've inserted the symbol ">" followed by 2 spaces
The report doesn't quite ident as much, but still shows the 2 spaces
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@Thai La When I do that it only displays a single space no matter how many I put in between the > and the rest of the text. What happens if you put in maybe 5 spaces? Does it show all 5 for you? I wonder if it is a browser thing.
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2 spaces is the only thing that will show.
If you enter 5 spaces, the sheet will only 2 spaces.
If you edit the task, all 5 spaces are still there, but the display still only shows 2 spaces
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Hmm. What browser are you using? I can't even get it to show the 2. Like you, the spaces are still there when I go to edit the cell, but the displayed spaces are limited to 1 for me.
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Using Microsoft Edge Chromium, but also use Google Chrome and Firefox too.
All 3 browsers show 2 spaces for me
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That's interesting. I use Edge, Firefox, and Chrome as well.
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I really enjoyed this discussion and wonder if anyone found a way to hack this, maybe using CHAR or UNICHAR?
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Is this something that can be accomplished with a Smartsheet Add-on? It would be nice to identify if these types of items are purposely not available because it's an "Upgrade" option with an add-on or if it's an enhancement request.
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I use this formula:
=(IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 0, "", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 1, "__", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 2, "____", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 3, "______", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 4, "________", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 5, "__________", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 6, "____________", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 7, "______________", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 8, "________________", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 9, "__________________", IF((COUNT(ANCESTORS([Primary Column]@row))) = 10, "____________________", ">")))))))))))) + [Primary Column]@row
to turn this on a sheet:
into this on a report:
