Help with Join(Collect to identify dependencies

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: JOIN(COLLECT 2 CONTAINS criteria with multiple returns Cross Sheet.

Dan123

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to use this method to identify downstream dependencies within my gantt. I'm currently doing this using the "dependencies" column using the formula:

=JOIN(COLLECT(RowNum:RowNum, Predecessors:Predecessors, RowNum@row), ", ")

As you can can see, this formula correctly identifies that rows 1475 and 1476 are dependent on 1474, but it does not notice that row 1477 is also dependent on 1474. This is obviously because the string in [Predecessors]1477 is not an exact match to [RowNum]1474.

When I change the Dependencies formula to the following, however, it returns nothing:

=JOIN(COLLECT(RowNum:RowNum, Predecessors:Predecessors, CONTAINS(RowNum@row, @cell)), ", ")

Two questions:

1) How can I fix the "contains" so that it correctly finds numbers within the string?

2) How can I modify "contains" so that it finds the correct number. Ex. I don't want a search for row 10 to return row 100 and 1001 just because "10" is in the string. I thought about just searching for "10," and "10FS" etc... but this would require a huge AND statement and I may not think of every permutation allowed within SS's predecessor field.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Dan123

We recently released a new function that I think will help you with this and even eliminated the need for some of your helper columns! The SUCCESSORS Function combined with JOIN will calculate the direct successors of a task and return a collection of task row numbers.

You can reference any cell on this current row within SUCCESSORS for it to work, but I would suggest using your Primary Column or Task Name, like so:

=JOIN(SUCCESSORS([Task Name]@row), ",")

Here's the Community Announcement for this function. Let me know if this works for you!

Cheers,

Genevieve

Dan123

Hi Genevieve,

That works perfectly! Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention!

Cheers,

Dan

Genevieve P.

Wonderful! I'm glad I could help. 🙂