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MattEl5
Level 3
June 18, 2026
Solved

Parent task in a project report

  • June 18, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 80 views

Hi folks, trying to get a Project report to display a column pulling in a specific task start date.

Its a parent task (because the child starting task for the section can change but we want to see when Data team starts).

the task name starts with “Data | “  - the rest of the task name might change as they put in the audience name or date etc, so trying to use a contains.

Heres what i tried from a previous post by ​@NicholeVargas switching out the “Strategy Comp” for “Data | “. 

displayname=Strategy Comp
listdelimiter=<p>
listmethod=nested(tasks).lists
textmode=true type=iterate
valueexpression=IF({numberOfChildren}>0&&CONTAINS("Strategy",{name}),{actualCompletionDate})
valueformat=HTML

But it is pulling in the start date of the project rather than the related task. 

See my version below, i was hoping to isolate the Task rather than project, but im not getting anything. 
 

valueexpression=IF({numberOfChildren}>1&&CONTAINS("Data",{name}),{task}.{actualStartDate})
valueformat=HTML
 

Thanks for the help & any ideas! 

    Best answer by NicholeVargas

    Rather than using && statements in your valueexpression, I recommend using a secondary IF statement! This should work for you, ​@MattEl5 

     

    displayname=Strategy Comp
    listdelimiter=<p>
    listmethod=nested(tasks).lists
    type=iterate
    valueexpression=IF({numberOfChildren}>0,IF(CONTAINS("Data",{name}),{actualStartDate}))
    valueformat=HTML

     

    4 replies

    MattEl5
    MattEl5Author
    Level 3
    June 18, 2026

    @skyehansen  please see above, if you have any ideas! thanks! 

    NicholeVargas
    Adobe Employee
    NicholeVargasAdobe EmployeeAccepted solution
    Adobe Employee
    June 18, 2026

    Rather than using && statements in your valueexpression, I recommend using a secondary IF statement! This should work for you, ​@MattEl5 

     

    displayname=Strategy Comp
    listdelimiter=<p>
    listmethod=nested(tasks).lists
    type=iterate
    valueexpression=IF({numberOfChildren}>0,IF(CONTAINS("Data",{name}),{actualStartDate}))
    valueformat=HTML

     

    MattEl5
    MattEl5Author
    Level 3
    June 29, 2026

    Hi Nichole!! 
    Thank you again, i am starting to get the idea about how to format adding and IF to an IF! 

    i switched out the actual to planned start date and thats pulling better info for them to look forward. 

    Last thing i am wondering is that where we have multiple results in a row, is there a way to organise that first date at the top? 
     


    i tried sort=asc, but i think that applies to the whole column, so not sure. thanks! 

    NicholeVargas
    Adobe Employee
    Adobe Employee
    July 6, 2026

    Unfortunately, you cannot sort text mode collections, so the order in which they appear is the final product 😕 If you wanted to CONCAT the task name or assignment to help make it clear which date is associated with what task, that could be an option...

    MattEl5
    MattEl5Author
    Level 3
    July 6, 2026

    An interesting idea, could I CONCAT a portion of the name of the task? 
    most of these would probably be the same starting text e.g. Job Entry | Release to Lettershop. 
    But we could have words like “Balance” “OE/RE” or something else after that phrase. 
    Would it be the whole bit or could we segment to say ignore “Job Entry | Release to Lettershop” and give me the next bit of whatever the text is? 

    IF not still interested into how we can bring in the task name, because that could also be helpful in multiple results for a box. 

    thanks for the continued help and education! ! 

    MattEl5
    MattEl5Author
    Level 3
    July 7, 2026

    Theres also this thing about SUBSTR that i had copilot throw at me 
    SUBSTR({name},34) 
    but again im not quite sure where it would go