Searching a series of columns for blanks

Josh Jereczek
Josh Jereczek ✭✭
edited 12/09/19 inFormulas and Functions

Hey all.

I am trying to have a column search a series of columns and return the data from the column that is not blank.

I have started with the following:

=IF(NOT(ISBLANK([Title:]1)), [Title:]1, [Peer to Peer Program Title]1)

Which checks the Title column, and if not blank returns the data from Title: column. If the Title: column is blank it returns the value in the Peer to Peer Program Title column.

This works just fine, but I want to go a step further, and if the Peer to Peer Program Title is also blank, I want it to return a value from a third column. I tried to make this work with nested IF statements, but kept getting errors.

Thank you!

Comments

  • Brian W
    Brian W ✭✭

    Did you try something like this?

    =IF(NOT(ISBLANK([Title:]1)), [Title:]1, IF(NOT(ISBLANK([Peer to Peer Program Title]1)), [Peer to Peer Program Title]1, [Third Column]1))

  • This works.

    Per usual I had something similar if not that same framework, but must have had a parenthesis out of place, or missed a comma.

    THANK YOU Brian!

  • Paul Newcome
    Paul Newcome ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    Depending on how many columns you are looking at, this could get rather huge rather quickly. If you have lets just say 10 columns you were looking across and only one would be populated and you wanted to pull that one single one, you could use

    =JOIN(COLLECT([Column 1]@row:[Column 10]@row, [Column 1]@row:[Column 10]@row, NOT(ISBLANK(@cell))))

    If there is a possibility of multiple columns having data in them, but you only want to pull one, that would take a little more work and most likely a few screenshots for reference (but it is still doable).

Help Article Resources

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Try this:<\/p>

=COUNTIFS([Item Number]:[Item Number], OR(@cell = \"C001\", @cell = \"COO2\", @cell = \"COO3\", @cell = \"COO4\"), [Status]:[Status], OR(@cell = \"Green\", @cell = \"Yellow\", @cell = \"Red\"))<\/p>"}]}},"status":{"statusID":3,"name":"Accepted","state":"closed","recordType":"discussion","recordSubType":"question"},"bookmarked":false,"unread":false,"category":{"categoryID":322,"name":"Formulas and Functions","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/formulas-and-functions","allowedDiscussionTypes":[]},"reactions":[{"tagID":3,"urlcode":"Promote","name":"Promote","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":5,"count":0},{"tagID":5,"urlcode":"Insightful","name":"Insightful","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0},{"tagID":11,"urlcode":"Up","name":"Vote Up","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0},{"tagID":13,"urlcode":"Awesome","name":"Awesome","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0}],"tags":[{"tagID":254,"urlcode":"formulas","name":"Formulas"}]},{"discussionID":109490,"type":"question","name":"HAS exact match within multiselect - Numbered Values","excerpt":"Scenario: Trying to identify a match if a value shows up in a multiselect from another sheet. Approach: I'm able to get 95% of this done through an index(collect(contains))) formula, but having some false positives show up wherever a partial match is found. I later found some suggestions that (has) would be more…","snippet":"Scenario: Trying to identify a match if a value shows up in a multiselect from another sheet. Approach: I'm able to get 95% of this done through an index(collect(contains)))…","categoryID":322,"dateInserted":"2023-08-25T19:26:32+00:00","dateUpdated":null,"dateLastComment":"2023-08-26T00:49:48+00:00","insertUserID":154049,"insertUser":{"userID":154049,"name":"Rob W.","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Rob%20W.","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/defaultavatar\/nWRMFRX6I99I6.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-26T00:49:37+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭"},"updateUserID":null,"lastUserID":154049,"lastUser":{"userID":154049,"name":"Rob W.","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Rob%20W.","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/defaultavatar\/nWRMFRX6I99I6.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-26T00:49:37+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭"},"pinned":false,"pinLocation":null,"closed":false,"sink":false,"countComments":2,"countViews":16,"score":null,"hot":3386003780,"url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/109490\/has-exact-match-within-multiselect-numbered-values","canonicalUrl":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/109490\/has-exact-match-within-multiselect-numbered-values","format":"Rich","lastPost":{"discussionID":109490,"commentID":392694,"name":"Re: HAS exact match within multiselect - Numbered Values","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/comment\/392694#Comment_392694","dateInserted":"2023-08-26T00:49:48+00:00","insertUserID":154049,"insertUser":{"userID":154049,"name":"Rob W.","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Rob%20W.","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/defaultavatar\/nWRMFRX6I99I6.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-26T00:49:37+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭"}},"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Home","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/"},{"name":"Get Help","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/get-help"},{"name":"Formulas and Functions","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/formulas-and-functions"}],"groupID":null,"statusID":3,"image":{"url":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/KJPRLKL2FW16\/capture-png.png","urlSrcSet":{"10":"","300":"","800":"","1200":"","1600":""},"alt":"Capture.PNG"},"attributes":{"question":{"status":"accepted","dateAccepted":"2023-08-26T00:49:35+00:00","dateAnswered":"2023-08-25T23:58:23+00:00","acceptedAnswers":[{"commentID":392688,"body":"

Hi, <\/p>

Instead of applying the formula to \"Multiselect Text String\" row, did you tried with \"Multiselect Values\" row?<\/p>

=IF(HAS([Multiselect Values]@row, [Component ID]@row), \"MATCH\", \"NO MATCH\")<\/p>

Thank you,<\/p>"}]}},"status":{"statusID":3,"name":"Accepted","state":"closed","recordType":"discussion","recordSubType":"question"},"bookmarked":false,"unread":false,"category":{"categoryID":322,"name":"Formulas and Functions","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/formulas-and-functions","allowedDiscussionTypes":[]},"reactions":[{"tagID":3,"urlcode":"Promote","name":"Promote","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":5,"count":0},{"tagID":5,"urlcode":"Insightful","name":"Insightful","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0},{"tagID":11,"urlcode":"Up","name":"Vote Up","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0},{"tagID":13,"urlcode":"Awesome","name":"Awesome","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0}],"tags":[]},{"discussionID":109474,"type":"question","name":"Help with date calculation formula","excerpt":"Hello, I'm trying to find a formula that will help me calculate how long an intake took to resolve. The rows I need to be calculated are Date Reported & Resolution Date. If the resolution date is blank I want it to use the current date in the calculation to see how long this issue has gone unresolved. Any help is much…","snippet":"Hello, I'm trying to find a formula that will help me calculate how long an intake took to resolve. The rows I need to be calculated are Date Reported & Resolution Date. If the…","categoryID":322,"dateInserted":"2023-08-25T16:29:39+00:00","dateUpdated":"2023-08-25T16:29:59+00:00","dateLastComment":"2023-08-25T23:01:30+00:00","insertUserID":165688,"insertUser":{"userID":165688,"name":"Nwest","title":"Systems Analyst","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Nwest","photoUrl":"https:\/\/aws.smartsheet.com\/storageProxy\/image\/images\/u!1!ukHVZ18ImX4!BcjWAe8S9SY!l7iQo_PZHOx","dateLastActive":"2023-08-25T17:22:30+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭"},"updateUserID":165688,"lastUserID":8888,"lastUser":{"userID":8888,"name":"Andrée Starå","title":"Smartsheet Expert Consultant & Partner | Workflow Consultant \/ CEO @ WORK BOLD","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Andr%C3%A9e%20Star%C3%A5","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/userpics\/0PAU3GBYQLBT\/nXWM7QXGD6464.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-26T14:46:22+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭✭✭✭✭✭"},"pinned":false,"pinLocation":null,"closed":false,"sink":false,"countComments":3,"countViews":23,"score":null,"hot":3385987269,"url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/109474\/help-with-date-calculation-formula","canonicalUrl":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/109474\/help-with-date-calculation-formula","format":"Rich","tagIDs":[254],"lastPost":{"discussionID":109474,"commentID":392687,"name":"Re: Help with date calculation formula","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/comment\/392687#Comment_392687","dateInserted":"2023-08-25T23:01:30+00:00","insertUserID":8888,"insertUser":{"userID":8888,"name":"Andrée Starå","title":"Smartsheet Expert Consultant & Partner | Workflow Consultant \/ CEO @ WORK BOLD","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Andr%C3%A9e%20Star%C3%A5","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/userpics\/0PAU3GBYQLBT\/nXWM7QXGD6464.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-26T14:46:22+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭✭✭✭✭✭"}},"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Home","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/"},{"name":"Get Help","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/get-help"},{"name":"Formulas and Functions","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/formulas-and-functions"}],"groupID":null,"statusID":3,"attributes":{"question":{"status":"accepted","dateAccepted":"2023-08-25T17:04:22+00:00","dateAnswered":"2023-08-25T16:36:59+00:00","acceptedAnswers":[{"commentID":392622,"body":"

\n \n https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/109474\/help-with-date-calculation-formula\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Hi, <\/p>

I hope you're well and safe!<\/p>

Try something like this.<\/p>

=IF([Date Reported]@row <> \"//www.santa-greenland.com/community/discussion/42991/\", IF([Resolution Date]@row = \"//www.santa-greenland.com/community/discussion/42991/\", NETDAYS([Date Reported]@row, TODAY()), NETDAYS([Date Reported]@row, [Resolution Date]@row)))<\/p>

Did that work\/help? <\/p>

I hope that helps!<\/p>

Be safe, and have a fantastic weekend!<\/p>

Best,<\/p>

Andrée Starå<\/strong><\/a> | Workflow Consultant \/ CEO @ WORK BOLD<\/strong><\/a><\/p>

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