Report on the first task's planned start date

[JulieCh11]

Hi - I want to create a Program View that displays the planned start date of the first task in every project's timeline. I cannot use Project Planned Start Date because many of the projects have cross-project predecessors, so the Project Planned Start Date is different from Task #1's Planned Start Date. Any help is appreciated!  

[RowvillBh1 · Accepted solution]

Hey @JulieCh11 

This is possible on a project report which you can either group by Program or add Program as a column in the beginning of the report. Add a new column to your already existing report/view, click on text mode and add the below code - 

displayname=Planned Start Date of first task
listdelimiter=<p>
listmethod=nested(tasks).lists
type=iterate
valueexpression=IF({taskNumber}=1,{plannedStartDate},"")
valueformat=HTML

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions

[JulieCh11]

Thank you this worked! I pasted the text above into a column in a custom Program View and it yielded the correct results. I assume this would also work in a report as you suggest. 

The only (minor!) issue is that I cannot then sort the dates from earliest to latest in the program view. I think that's because it is text, not dates/numbers.