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Reporting multiple-answer-fields on their own individual lines

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Level 10
hi gang, I think it's just better to start with the example and report I'm getting from it. I have 2 custom fields,
and , where we're authorized to use a form number in some (but not all) states. I know at the very least, I can run a report with 2 columns, one for form number and one for states. I'm looking for some way to flip it and run a report so that I can list all states on their own rows, and which forms are used in each state. So rather than a result like: table with two columns-- Form-Number-1 : AK, AL, WY Form-Number-2 : AK, CO, WY I get a result like this: table with two (or more) columns AK: Form-Number-1, Form-Number 2 AL: Form-Number-1 CO: Form-Number 2 WY: Form-Number-1, Form-Number 2 Ideally in either case, each of the comma separations would indicate a separate column. The intent is to have an assembly grid (e.g. we can see at a glance what forms are needed in AK) so this is quite a good question from our team but we didn't account for it in initial planning. OR Excel nerds: if there's a way to program excel to somehow automatically read the answer for all the states and then set up the same thing, please let me know! -skye
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Level 2
I'm certain you could get to your second example through Excel, but the process might be a bit involved. If your data is separated by commas you can use Excel's text to columns feature (under Data) to easily split those items into separate columns. If your data is formatted like the below: Form # | State Form-Number-1 | AK, AL, WY Form-Number-2 | AK, CO, WY You can also filter both columns and then search by CO on the state column for example. This would filter your list to only show the form #'s that correlate to that state. Stephen Schmidt The Home Depot Creative Services

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Level 10
Thanks Stephen for offering up a workaround in Excel. I'll play with a few reports and give the manager some options. -skye

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Level 3
Hi Skye, Stephen is right in terms of the Excel steps being "involved", but I think if you set up the framework properly, the ongoing update/refresh process wouldn't be too terrible. He's correct that you'd start out with "text to columns". Your goal would be column headings to this effect: Form, State1, State2, State3, etc. Once you've got the data in the columns, I'd then highlight it all and convert it to a table (Insert/Table). This isn't completely necessary but would set you up with a better platform for regular updates. The rest depends a bit on what version of Excel you have. If you have 2013, you can load the PowerQuery add-in; I believe 2016 has the functionality built in already. (I'm not on 2016, so I'll explain with 2013 that has PowerQuery loaded…not every step, but enough to give you some direction.) Click anywhere in your table, and under the PowerQuery menu, select "From Table". This will pull your table headers and data into the PowerQuery builder. In the PowerQuery window, highlight your "State" column headers (not the "Form" one), go to "Transform", and select "Unpivot Columns". Next, right-click on the column header that now contains State1, State2, State3, etc. (by default, it's probably called "Attribute"), and click "Delete". At this point, the data is in roughly the format you need. Make note of the name shown in the pane to the right (under Query Settings). Under the "Home" tab, select "Close & Load" then "Close & Load To"; select "Only Create Connection" and do not check "Load to Data Model", then click "Load". To get that revised data back into Excel, go to a new sheet, click in a cell. From under the "Data" tab, select "Existing Connections". "Connections in this workbook" should show you the name of the table you created under Power Query. Click "Open" and "OK", which should place the data in your worksheet. At this point, you can either just use the table to filter by state (as Stephen noted), or you could get fancy and create a pivot table, where you would throw first "State" and then "Form" into the rows area (at that point, I'd probably play with the options a bit to make the format more tabular). Whew! To update the data in the future, you'd pull your report from Workfront again, throw it in any Excel sheet and do the "text to columns" thing again. Then, just paste the resulting data (NOT the headers! Don't overwrite those!) into the table we initially started with. Then go to the final table, click anywhere in it, and select Data/Refresh/Refresh All. All those steps you manually built in PowerQuery will rerun, and tada! The table will show the updated data. While it's a bit daunting the first time around, if you like Excel, it's really sort of fun. :-) I have a number of things I use PowerQuery on to update Excel-based Workfront reports on a weekly basis. Hopefully my description wasn't too cryptic and will get you going in the proper direction, if you choose that route. Kathy

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Level 10
Thanks Kathy! I will try to follow along and I have a resident excel geek who might also be able to assist in translating your excellent directions! I sure appreciate it! I had been kind of thinking along terms of conditional formatting, and am not sure if the below would work but pictured it in my head as: 1) copy and re-paste the column data as new column headings, i.e. copy the columns of info and re-paste as a row and make that the heading. This will give me my form numbers across the top. 2) have pre-set state row headings that run from top to bottom in one column. 3) each cell has conditional programming looking to the collected state cell at the top to say "if my state is contained in this string, flash an X, otherwise remain blank". I'm glad to have a second option to suggest and play with! Thanks again. :) -skye

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Level 3
That would actually work well too! You can use the Paste Special/Transpose option to quickly switch your rows to columns. If your first form name (Form-Number-1: AK, AL, WY) is in B1, and your first state name (AK) is in A2, you could use a formula like the following in B2 and drag it down: =IF(A2<>"",IF(ISERROR(FIND(A2,$B$1)),"","X"),"") If you want to get pretty, you can then add your conditional formatting to change all the X's to something else. You could also use a formula to show you JUST the form name as your headers (=LEFT(B1,FIND(":",B1)-1)) and hide the row that has all the data you're searching (form name plus state list). (sigh) I do like Excel. :-)

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Level 10
You're so wonderful! It worked exactly as you predicted. I have just enough Excel skill to point everything on the formatted page to the underlying raw Workfront data so all I need to do is give them a page of formula and they won't have to copy anything into it--they only have to point it at something... -skye

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Level 3
Very nice! I'm so glad you got it to work.