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MattEl5
MattEl5
Level 3
June 18, 2026
Solved

Parent task in a project report

  • June 18, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 223 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 skyehansen

      @MattEl5  do not let copilot throw things at you without copy/pasting the relevant sections into it first. I get pretty poor answers out of copilot unless I’m very strict about the syntax.

      If you would go to the data expressions page and paste the relevant sections for len and substr into copilot first, along with your current expression, you would be able to get much closer (or it appears to be explaining to me what it’s doing, so this might help you as well).

      As an example, I first tried the following as a prompt:

      My current workfront valueexpression is:
      valueexpression=IF(CONTAINS("Job Entry | Release to Lettershop",{name}),{plannedCompletionDate},"")))

      I want to further display the name in addition to the planned completion date -- but not all of the name. Just the part after "Job Entry | Release to Lettershop".

      If you're able to, can you read the following link to educate yourself on how to construct a valueexpression. https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/workfront/using/reporting/reports/calculated-custom-data/calculated-data-expressions

      Otherwise, I've been told to use SUBSTR and LEN to get there. Here is the syntax for both.

      LEN	
      Returns the length of a string and is formatted as follows:
      LEN(string)

      SUBSTR	
      Returns characters of a string based on the start and end index specified and is formatted as follows:
      SUBSTR({string}, number of start position, number of end position)

       

      This didn’t work 100% but it got 85% there, and the explanation was pretty understandable. I was able to talk it round to using the CONCAT function to get a more plausible answer. 

      4 replies

      MattEl5
      MattEl5Author
      Level 3
      June 18, 2026

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

      NicholeVargas
      Adobe Employee
      NicholeVargasAdobe Employee
      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
        NicholeVargasAdobe 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

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