How To Reference Top Parent For Each Row

I'm trying to implement a formula that will reference the name of the rows Top/First Parent for each row. I have reviewed other threads on this and have not seen a definitive solution (or just one I could get to work). Ideally looking for something that could then be used as a column formula.

Our sheet is organized into 7 stages and ideally each row under each of these stages would reference the Top/First Parent task name independent of how many levels of hierarchy there are within the stage.

Screen shot of desired future state.

Any help is appreciated!

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Accepted answers

Paul Newcome

You would use something like this:

=IFERROR(INDEX(ANCESTORS([Task Name]@row), 1), [Task Name]@row)

All comments

Paul Newcome

You would use something like this:

=IFERROR(INDEX(ANCESTORS([Task Name]@row), 1), [Task Name]@row)

ShaunC

Yeah that worked great! Appreciate it!

Paul Newcome

Happy to help. 👍️

Tiffany Ross

Thank you! This was a huge help.

Christoph Studinka

Great solution if you need to reference to the parent only…. but I also need to reference to the grand parent and the great grand parent. In other words, I need a text in a cell that combines all the ancestors plus the row itself (with +).

How could I accomplish this?

Many thanks for any help.

Christoph

Paul Newcome

@Christoph Studinka You would use a JOIN function to join the ANCESTORS together.

Christoph Studinka

Thanks Paul, interesting approach. I'll try (I'm curious).

I found a workaround in the mean time, works like a charm, but at the moment I am limited to 4 hierarchical levels… (working with IF/AND plus INDEX/Ancestors and 3 helper columns). Cheers, Christoph

Paul Newcome

@Christoph Studinka It would be very similar to the INDEX function.

=JOIN(ANCESTORS([Column Name]@row), "+") + [Column Name]@row

Christoph Studinka

Wow Paul, this is a very elegant solution! Saves hours of workaround work… Many thanks for this.
Christoph

Christoph Studinka

What if I would want a / between the ancestors:

Here: Three hierarchical levels to be joined together:
General / Functions / Marketing

Thanks again, Christoph

Isis Taylor

@Paul Newcome Thanks for explaining, I have been trying to figure out how to do that as well.

Paul Newcome

@Christoph Studinka You would change the "delimiter" portion of the JOIN function.

@Isis Taylor Glad this thread was able to help. 👍️

Christoph Studinka

Many thanks, works well. The Smartsheet community is of invaluable help. I appreciate this enormously.
Christoph

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