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DanBl
August 26, 2022
Question

Text calculated custom fields CONCAT separator options

  • August 26, 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 5146 views

I see these examples listed here. But is there a more complete list? Specifically a way to force a line break between fields? Especially blank fieds?

 

CONCAT

This expression concatenates the string and is formatted as follows:

CONCAT(string1,"separator", string2)

The following are examples of separators that you can include:

  • a space: " "
  • a dash: "-"
  • a slash: "/"
  • a comma: ","
  • a word: "or", "and"
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    5 replies

    William
    Community Advisor
    WilliamCommunity Advisor
    Community Advisor
    August 27, 2022

    To insert a line break into a valueexpression, insert the unicode character for newline as shown below. 
    This example inserts a line break between the record's owner and the record owner's email address. 

    CONCAT({owner}.{name},"\u000A",{owner}.{emailAddr})



    (original comment edited to display the best solution above)

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      D
      DanBlAuthor
      September 1, 2022

      Thanks. Conceivably, I could work around by adding a line break to the calculated field between CONCAT expressions? What's the line break character that calculated fields can read?

      laurence_jayawardane
      laurence_jayawardane
      Level 4
      September 2, 2022

      I don't know the answer to your specific question Dan, but I do simply use an extra column that I share (sharecol=true) that has the separator there, in some instances. For example merging a name and a description and adding a line in between... I'd add two columns, one for name, one for description, then use the method here to add a third column under the subheader "Merge data from two columns with a line break" to then merge the two initial columns together. Except instead of using value=<br> I'd use value=<hr> for a horizontal line.

      William
      Community Advisor
      WilliamCommunity Advisor
      Community Advisor
      April 28, 2023

      Notifying anyone following this thread that a discovery has been unearthed!

      @skyehansen was sharing this trick by @the_real_melinda_layten in a larger discussion about multi-select fields. I then realized this is how we can insert unicode control characters into a value expression, without having to rely on the clunky workaround that was previously described. 

      CONCAT({owner}.{name},"\u000A",{owner}.{emailAddr})

      This makes it very easy to insert a line break in a calculated field or column, by simply putting in the unicode \u000A in your expression where a line break is needed.

      Even more importantly, this can be used to replace column sharing in many, many situations. A single calculated column can replace multiple shared columns using this approach - and will also be easier to re-arrange within a view since there are no column number prefixes that have to be considered. 

      If you like my content, please take a moment to view and vote on my Idea Requests: https://tinyurl.com/4rbpr7hf
        Doug_Den_Hoed_AtAppStore
        Community Advisor
        Doug_Den_Hoed_AtAppStoreCommunity Advisor
        Community Advisor
        April 28, 2023

         

        Thanks for sharing @william-- 

         

        I'm going to use this new approach rather than column sharing going forward: it is lighter, more functional, and easier to maintain...provided I remember to always re-supply the extra leading \ symbols that are sacrificed whenever such calculations are edited via the front end (vs pushing such calcs in via the API).

         

        Regards,

        Doug

        N
        NeetuKanwarMokawat
        May 2, 2023

        Hi All!
        I want to know the escape character here, requirement is to keep the owner name and email address in quotes, how can we achieve it?

        CONCAT("Name":"{owner}.{name}","'","Email":"{owner}.{emailAddr}")

         

        Doug_Den_Hoed_AtAppStore
        Community Advisor
        Doug_Den_Hoed_AtAppStoreCommunity Advisor
        Community Advisor
        May 2, 2023


        Hi @neetukanwarmokawat,

         

        One way is to use ‘ for the concat components, and “ for the delimiters around the contained terms, like this;

         

        CONCAT(‘“Name”:”’,{owner}.{name},””’,…)

         

        Regards,

        Doug

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