Drop down list from another sheet

Mark Verret · 10/08/20

I currently have two sheets. Sheet1: Company List, Sheet2: Contacts. I am trying to create a dropdown column listing the companies from Sheet1 to populate the drop down for a column in Sheet2. This would essentially work as a lookup to keep the values in the contacts sheet limited to the known companies in sheet 1.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Mark

David Tutwiler · 10/08/20

I believe you'll need Data Uploader to make that work. It offers an "Update Dropdown" option for this.

David Tutwiler · 10/08/20

I believe you'll need Data Uploader to make that work. It offers an "Update Dropdown" option for this.

Erin Ballantine · 11/17/20

Can you explain a little more about how Data Uploader solves this problem?

Thanks.

Andrée Starå · 11/22/20

Hi @Erin Ballantine

Here's more information.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2478361-data-uploader

Select a Target Sheet and Upload Action

In this step of the workflow, you will configure how you would like the results uploaded into Smartsheet.

Select the target sheet to be updated. (If you are using Smartsheet Attachments as a source, this can be the same sheet or a different sheet from the source sheet.)
Choose how you want to import the data into Smartsheet:
- Replace—Delete all existing data and replace it with the newest data
IMPORTANT: Choosing replace will delete all context added including cell links.
Merge—Updates data based on a primary key with an option for you to insert new rows. If you choose this option, you'll also need to select whether to add new rows.
Update Dropdowns—Replace Smartsheet dropdown values in Column Properties, from values within your Excel or .csv file

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Anne-Solene Monrouzeau · 02/22/21

Hi, I have the same question. Can we link the data uploader to a Smartsheet sheet? How do I know if the data uploader is part of my license?

Vasken Bakkalian · 05/11/21

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/265374#Comment_265374

What about filling a dropdown list from a column of an internal sheet, and not from external resources.

For example, I have a sheet named 'Projects' and another sheet as 'Clients'. In the Projects sheet, I need to have a column as 'Clients' and load all the clients via a dropdown reading the "Clients' sheet.

Thinking of a DB structure would be a "1 to many" relation from 'Clients' table to 'Projects' table.

Not sure but hope it's possible, or what account type do I need to be able to do that.

If possible, any hints or directions?

David Tutwiler · 05/11/21

Sure thing. The easiest way to handle this would be to run a continuous piece of code that updated this all the time using the Smartsheet API. However, you can do this with Data Uploader, but it requires a piece in the middle.

The first step would be to go to the Send As Attachment option in the source sheet (projects in your example I believe). From here you would schedule the frequency you want this to update. Maybe it's once a day, but you could also have this sheet send itself as an attachment to an email address every hour if you wanted to.

The next step is the trickiest part because there is no direct solution without a third-party in the middle. Here, you need to take that attachment in the email and automatically send it to the Cloud Storage service of your preference (OneDrive or Google drive). I have used Zapier to make this work, and depending on how often you're going to run this you could get away with their free account to make this work because that all you need to do is move the attachment to a folder on your shared drive.

Now that it's in your cloud storage you can follow Andree's step by step on how to point Data Uploader to your file and update the drop-down in the destination sheet (Customers, I believe).

Again, it's a bit convuluted, but without using the API or Bridge, this is the only way I know how to make this work.

@Vasken Bakkalian @Anne-Solene Monrouzeau @Erin

Jared Armstrong · 09/15/21

I've been using a 3rd-party app called Dropdown Update for Smartsheet (https://dropdown.anvil.app/) but I'm keen to find a way that doesn't involve 3rd-party access to my sheets.

Andrée Starå · 09/15/21

Hi @Jared Armstrong

I hope you're well and safe!

I recently developed a solution for a client to keep Drop down lists synced by using the Premium App, Data Shuttle.

Is that an option?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

JSanita · 11/15/21

@Andrée Starå This sounds exactly like what I am trying to do. Can you provide some more detail on how you accomplished this using data mesh? I have one sheet that is a list of all team members and their department (an org list, so to speak) and am putting together a RAID register. Would like to use the list of team members in dropdown list to assign team members.

Jeff Hayford · 12/03/21

Why is this not a basic functionality of Smart Sheets? Similar apps have this out of the box. What good is a database if you can't easily reference information in other locations?

bowinte · 12/07/21

Has anyone figured this out? I am a project manager trying to create a change management system. I want to reference a Project ID from one sheet, as a dropdown in a form for submitted change requests that then populate into a different sheet.

Andrée Starå · 01/09/22

Hi @JSanita & @bowinte

I hope you're well and safe!

How did it go? Did you manage to get something set up?

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic weekend & Happy New Year!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

eric_mixtape · 01/20/22

Hello,

Any help on this topic ? Is there a smartsheet function to populate dropdown list from another sheet source of data ?

thanks

Andrée Starå · 01/20/22

Hi @eric_mixtape

I hope you're well and safe!

I recently developed a solution for a client where the Dropdown lists are kept updated using the premium app, Data Shuttle.

Is that an option?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

shschwartz · 02/02/22

This is an utterly simple function in Excel. Why does Smartsheet require these work-arounds?

Drop down list from another sheet

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Select a Target Sheet and Upload Action

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