How do I stop blank rows from being added and being count in my formula?

Mary Shevlin

I have a table of 154 rows. I need to know how many are blank. There are actually three, but Smartsheet automatically adds ten blank rows (no matter how many times I delete them) so the formula says there are 13 blank cells! There aren't; there are three!

How do I stop Smartsheet from adding ten blank rows?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Mary Shevlin

Unfortunately, it's not possible because they are added by default.

To have the formulas working, you'd only need to add -10 to the formula.

Did that work?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

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!

Mary Shevlin

Yes, it will work (I did did think of that), but can I be certain that Smartsheet will ALWAYS add EXACTLY ten rows? What if it only adds five, then my formula is off again.

Is there someway to know that ten is the absolute default and more or fewer will not be added?

Thank you for your answer.

Mary Shevlin

Or, I guess I could just specify the exact rows to count, and not allow for additional rows by not selecting the column.

Maybe that will have to be the work-around.

Thanks!

Andrée Starå

@Mary Shevlin

Excellent!

Yes, you can be sure that it's always 10 rows.

You're more than welcome!

Felicia Wilson

Hi

I wanted to comment that this is odd behavior for SmartSheet to automatically always add 10 rows to the end of the sheet. A coworker just found that behavior causes the ISBLANK() function for a range of cells to return 10 more than it should. I would suggest that SmartSheet let the user add the blank rows if they want and otherwise only save rows that the user adds. Do not add blank rows by default.

Thanks.

Sandra Guzman

@Felicia Wilson and @Mary Shevlin,

I agree with you both on this as well. I deleted these rows multiple times before learning that this is normal behavior.

I would suggest submitting a product enhancement request for this so that Smartsheet receives your direct input. Since becoming a Smartsheet user, I have bookmarked this link and submit my feedback regularly.

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/739aa75f30ca43a8a22eb53e4da7d409?ss_v=109.2.0

Best regards,

Sandra

Andrée Starå

Hi @Mary Shevlin

Unfortunately, it's not possible because they are added by default.

To have the formulas working, you'd only need to add -10 to the formula.

Did that work?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

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!

Mary Shevlin

Yes, it will work (I did did think of that), but can I be certain that Smartsheet will ALWAYS add EXACTLY ten rows? What if it only adds five, then my formula is off again.

Is there someway to know that ten is the absolute default and more or fewer will not be added?

Thank you for your answer.

Mary Shevlin

Or, I guess I could just specify the exact rows to count, and not allow for additional rows by not selecting the column.

Maybe that will have to be the work-around.

Thanks!

Andrée Starå

@Mary Shevlin

Excellent!

Yes, you can be sure that it's always 10 rows.

You're more than welcome!

Felicia Wilson

Hi

I wanted to comment that this is odd behavior for SmartSheet to automatically always add 10 rows to the end of the sheet. A coworker just found that behavior causes the ISBLANK() function for a range of cells to return 10 more than it should. I would suggest that SmartSheet let the user add the blank rows if they want and otherwise only save rows that the user adds. Do not add blank rows by default.

Thanks.

Mary Shevlin

Felicia - I completely agree with you. It messes with my formulas too!

Mary

Sandra Guzman

@Felicia Wilson and @Mary Shevlin,

I agree with you both on this as well. I deleted these rows multiple times before learning that this is normal behavior.

I would suggest submitting a product enhancement request for this so that Smartsheet receives your direct input. Since becoming a Smartsheet user, I have bookmarked this link and submit my feedback regularly.

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/739aa75f30ca43a8a22eb53e4da7d409?ss_v=109.2.0

Best regards,

Sandra

Mary Shevlin

Thank you Sandra:

I just added my 2 cents to their feedback form and have bookmarked it for future use. Thank you very much.

Mary

Leibel S

If you put in an Auto-Number field and use that as part of your criteria for counting then it would not see any added rows (Even if Smartsheet changes how many rows they add to the bottom), because they would not have an Auto-Number unless it is a saved row...

Pat Canning

No, it is not always exactly 10 rows. I have some sheets that when I delete all the existing blank rows it adds 48 new ones. (Essentially, I periodically refresh the data in these sheets from a master copy. I delete 1700+ rows, leaving only the first two. Smartsheet comes back with my two saved rows + 48 new, blank ones for a new total of 50.)