How can "successors()" just show direct successors?

Hi - I find a "successors" column useful. I can easily make a column with a column-formula of JOIN(SUCCESSORS(X@row),", ") - great. But if the successor is a parent row, I get not only the successor row shown but also all of the children of that row. Like this:

I don't want to know that the tasks on lines 3 and 4 are technically successors to row 1; I just want to know that row 1 is connected to row 2. The "predecessors" column for row 3 doesn't show that row 1 is a predecessor, after all. The "successors"column for row 1 should just say "2".

Can I make "successors()" just show the immediate (I would say, the actual) successors?

thanks!

Aaron

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Paul Newcome

Try

=INDEX(SUCCESSORS(X@row), 1)

AaronO

Hi Paul, thanks for the reply. A few problems, though:

When I try your solution as-is, I get an #INVALID COLUMN VALUE
If I wrap it in a JOIN(INDEX(SUCCESSORS(X@row), 1), ", ") to force it into something that I know should be a valid cell value, I get "2, 3, 4" just like before - so INDEX apparently isn't doing its thing.
But if I understand what you're doing, this wouldn't solve the problem anyway. Consider this case:

I want that successors field to say "2, 5" - I think what you're proposing would just result in "2."

Genevieve P.

Hi @AaronO

I don't believe there's a way to exclude child row information from the SUCCESSORS function if the Successor is a Parent row. Currently this will bring back all of the child row numbers, as you've found. I would suggest adding the Predecessor value to the first Child instead of the Parent-level task, if possible.

Please also submit your feature request to the Product team by creating an Idea Post in the Smartsheet Product Feedback and Ideas topic here in the Community. This will allow other users to vote on your enhancement idea!

Cheers,

Genevieve

Paul Newcome

Maybe try this:

=INDEX(SUCCESSORS(X@row), 1) + ""

That particular error USUALLY comes from something like trying to output a date into a text/number column. You can generally get around this by converting it to a text string by "adding" quote quote to it.

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