If formula: activity code if a certain word is found

Karrie Davis

I have a formula that puts a activity code if a certain word is found in the narrative. However, it only place one word. In the example below the word "telephone" should have put CONFERNCE CALL and "draft" should have put DRAFT, however only DRAFT showed up.

Below is my formula:

=IF(CONTAINS("review", Narrative@row), "REVIEW", IF(CONTAINS("email", Narrative@row), "EMAIL", IF(CONTAINS("draft/revise", Narrative@row), "DRAFT/REVISE", IF(CONTAINS("revise", Narrative@row), "REVISE", IF(CONTAINS("draft", Narrative@row), "Draft", IF(CONTAINS("Research", Narrative@row), "RESEARCH", IF(CONTAINS("analyze", Narrative@row), "ANALYZE",IF(CONTAINS("TELEPHONE", Narrative@row), "CONFERENCE CALL",IF(CONTAINS("OUTLINE", Narrative@row), "OUTLINE", "")))

Karrie Davis

Mike Wilday

Hi @kari1282

IF formulas are a unique type of formula. When firing the IF formula tests EACH IF statement until it finds the First TRUE condiiton, then it fires its THEN statement and stops working through the list. Because DRAFT fired first in the formula set up, it added DRAFT and then stopped checking.

One way this might work for you is to do something a little different, maybe make a column for each type of activity you need which searches the text as you do in your if statement but each column would only search for its type, and then posts the word like draft, telephone, etc. Then, you can use the JOIN formula in the Activity 2 column to join all of those other columns together providing you your expected result.

https://help.smartsheet.com/function/join

Would that work for you?

Karrie Davis

Thank you, is there a way I can modify the current formula to get it show to answers. The spreadsheet in question already has a lot of columns and I would prefer not to add more or have to create and extra sheet just for this.

Thanks,

Karrie

Andrée Starå

Hi @kari1282

To add to Mike's excellent answer.

Try something like this.

=IF(CONTAINS("review", Narrative@row), "REVIEW" + CHAR(10), "") + IF(CONTAINS("email", Narrative@row), "EMAIL" + CHAR(10), "") + IF(CONTAINS("draft/revise", Narrative@row), "DRAFT/REVISE" + CHAR(10), "") + IF(CONTAINS("revise", Narrative@row), "REVISE" + CHAR(10), "") + IF(CONTAINS("draft", Narrative@row), "Draft" + CHAR(10), "") + IF(CONTAINS("Research", Narrative@row), "RESEARCH" + CHAR(10), "") + IF(CONTAINS("analyze", Narrative@row), "ANALYZE" + CHAR(10), "") + IF(CONTAINS("TELEPHONE", Narrative@row), "CONFERENCE CALL" + CHAR(10), "") + IF(CONTAINS("OUTLINE", Narrative@row), "OUTLINE" + CHAR(10), "")

Did 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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Andrée Starå

To add.

This is how it will look. All values that are true will be on a separate line in the cell.

Mike Wilday

@Andrée Starå That is a REALLY cool solution. I have never considered adding IF statements together with soft returns. That is a winner for sure. REALLY great solution!!! One I am bookmarking and referencing for the future. VERY COOL. +10 -- MIND BLOWN...

Andrée Starå

@Mike Wilday

Thanks so much for all the kind words!