Auto populate Parent Rows

Tina Wilkinson

Is there a way to copy formaulas on parent rows of a plan?

If my users add more rows I have to find the new rows and copy the formula e.g. Min/Max on parent rows. It would be great if SS could auto-populate the formula when new rows are added.

Any ideas?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Tina Wilkinson

Not sure I follow!

You can create a formula that checks if it's a parent or not and then use the formula accordingly.

Make sense?

Would that work?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Tina Wilkinson

Hi Andre,

Thanks for your quick response. In the Start / Finish Columns I am using =MIN(CHILDREN()/=MAX(CHILDREN() on the parent rows. I am copying the formula into each parent row and it is quite time consuming on a 3k row plan. Is there a way SS can recognised the parent row and add the formula automatically?

Thanks

Andrée Starå

@Tina Wilkinson

Happy to help!

Unfortunately, no, there isn't, but you can filter on all parent rows if you have a unique value for them. If you don't have that, you can add a so-called helper column showing which rows are parent rows.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

Tina Wilkinson

That could work. Would SS work out which are the parent rows or would I need to id them?

Andrée Starå

@Tina Wilkinson

Excellent!

You'd need to add a so-called helper column if you don't have anything else that could be used to identify the Parent rows in the filter.

If you add a helper column called Level and something like the formula below, you'll get a number for all parents.

=IF(COUNT(CHILDREN([Task Name]@row)) > 0; COUNT(ANCESTORS()) + 1)

Did that work?

Tina Wilkinson

Thanks - I'll give it a try

Andrée Starå

@Tina Wilkinson

Excellent!

You're more than welcome!

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