Parent function to auto-populate cells

Natasha Szczerb

Hi everyone,

Wondering if someone could help me with a formula to auto-label cells. I'm creating a project tracker for my team on Smartsheet and have automation set up for approval process, and also so completed tasks are moved to a new sheet. The problem is, on both instances, the row itself might not contain all information if it's a child row to a parent campaign or main task. So to help with this issue, I'm creating two new columns for campaigns and projects/main task. I want these two new columns to auto-populate to avoid manual work, and used the PARENT formula to do it. However, if something has two indentations, how can I get the parent of the parent?

Screenshot here for reference.

Thanks in advance,

Natasha

Andrée Starå

Happy to help!

Apologies. Try this one for your region.

=JOIN(ANCESTORS([Task Description & Sub-Task]@row), " / ")

Did it work?

Andrée Starå

Excellent!

You're more than welcome!

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Andrée Starå

Hi Natasha,

You could use something like this. (replace the column name with yours)

=JOIN(ANCESTORS([Task Name]@row); " / ")

Would that work?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Natasha Szczerb

Thanks Andree for your help again! :)

I have tried but it gives me an error message #UNPARSEABLE

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong in the formula?

This is what I have tried:

=JOIN(ANCESTORS([Task Description & Sub-Task]7; " / ")

=JOIN(ANCESTORS([Task Description & Sub-Task]7; "([Task Description & Sub-Task]7)"

=JOIN(ANCESTORS([Task Name]@row) "([Task Description & Sub-Task]7)"

Thanks again,

Natasha

Andrée Starå

Happy to help!

Apologies. Try this one for your region.

=JOIN(ANCESTORS([Task Description & Sub-Task]@row), " / ")

Did it work?

Natasha Szczerb

That worked! Amazing! Thank you so much! :)

Andrée Starå

Excellent!

You're more than welcome!

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!