JOIN(COLLECT Issue

Egkci

I have run into a problem that I can't seem to figure out. I'm making an inventory tracking sheet that is as automated as possible, run primarily by a form that people will fill out when they take an item (we want to track who has what items AND when they took what items). I've set up a "background" sheet that is filled by the form and I have the primary sheet linked to the background sheet that will display everything that each person has taken using multiple JOIN(COLLECT strings. The problem stems from the fact that the form has multiple dropdown lists from which people can select the items they took out. The JOIN(COLLECT strings in my primary sheet are grouping the items they took by columns instead of rows, making it impossible to identify which item was taken out on which date (I also have a JOIN(COLLECT in the primary sheet linked to the dates). Initially, when there was only one dropdown list of items, the items that were taken out on a single day were grouped together and matched with the date column next to it. But now that I've had to add more dropdown lists of items, the primary sheet now groups the items by which column they are in instead of which row they are in (and subsequently which day they were taken).

So my question is, is it possible to have multiple JOIN(COLLECTS joining multiple dropdown columns but have the contents displayed in a way that puts all the contents of the same row together so I can identify which items were taken out on which dates?

Thanks so much for any suggestions!

Paul Newcome

You would need to insert a helper column on the source sheet that joins everything together on a row by row basis first.