Forum Discussion

QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
QuickBaseCoachD
Qrew Captain
7 years ago

Formula to turn a Combined Text Summary field into a vertical list

Sometimes you may not want the "bubble" appearance of the native Combined Text Summary field on a report.  Here is a fun formula to change the appearance of a Combined Text Summary field into a vertic...
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Formulas and functions
MichaelZeppieri's avatar
MichaelZeppieri
Qrew Trainee
6 years ago
Thank you for sharing this. I am trying to do something similar, but can't seem to figure out where to insert your formula. I have a combined text list that I am pulling from a child table as a consolidated list in the parent table through the table relationship. When referencing this combined text field as a column in a report, it renders as a continuous list, with each item surrounded by a bubble. I want to:

- Render the text as a vertical stack
- Remove the bubbles
- Render a bullet in front of each line item

Do I insert your formula into the formula section at the report level, and is it possible to modify the formula to add bullets and remove the bubbles? Thank you!

  • MarkShnier__You's avatar
    MarkShnier__You
    Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
    6 years ago
    This would be a new text Rich Text formula field.  

    var text CombinedText = ToText([My Text Concatenation Field for Child Records]);

    var text ConvertToVerticalListWithBullets=
    Trim(SearchAndReplace($CombinedText, " ; ","<br>&#8226")); // separate entries with a new line and a bullet

    If($ConvertToVerticalListWithBullets<>"", "&#8226") // this is a bullet for the first entry
    &
    $ConvertToVerticalListWithBullets


    ------------------------------
    Mark Shnier (YQC)
    Quick Base Solution Provider
    Your Quick Base Coach
    http://QuickBaseCoach.com
    mark.shnier@gmail.com
    ------------------------------
    • JenniferSchafer's avatar
      JenniferSchafer
      Qrew Member
      6 years ago
      I used this 2nd formula and it works great.
      However, there are times when my combined text field is blank because our users will be answering that question at a later time.
      In those cases, a bullet point still appears. How can I remove those lonely black dots?

      ------------------------------
      Jennifer Schafer
      ------------------------------
      • MarkShnier__You's avatar
        MarkShnier__You
        Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
        6 years ago
        Hmmmm, that is peculiar.  Is there a chance that our source data for the text field on the child record that is being summary has an entry with spaces as the entry.

        Can you try making a child on the child table 
        Trim([my text field to be summarized])

        but, D'oh,  actually I have a way better idea as I type.

        You are telling me that you do not want to include blank children in your Combined Text Summary field, so change the summary field to filter out the blank children.  Probably still a good idea to make the TRIM (  ) field and summarize that field and filter where that TRIM ( ) is not blank

        ------------------------------
        Mark Shnier (YQC)
        Quick Base Solution Provider
        Your Quick Base Coach
        http://QuickBaseCoach.com
        mark.shnier@gmail.com
        ------------------------------
    • RobSalaj's avatar
      RobSalaj
      Qrew Cadet
      5 years ago
      Can you create a list without bullets? In other words, can you take a combined Summary Field, and eventually find a way to convert it back to a user list to send notifications from?

      ------------------------------
      Rob Salaj
      ------------------------------
      • MarkShnier__You's avatar
        MarkShnier__You
        Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
        5 years ago
        yes
        if you had a Combined Text Summary field of the text value of the userids, then on the Parent you can use this formula.  Just keep adding as many rows to the formula as you need. 

        var text value = ToText([Combined Text Userid in text format]);

        ToUserList(
        ToUser(Trim(Part($value,1,";"))),
        ToUser(Trim(Part($value,2,";"))),
        ToUser(Trim(Part($value,3,";")))
        )

        ------------------------------
        Mark Shnier (YQC)
        Quick Base Solution Provider
        Your Quick Base Coach
        http://QuickBaseCoach.com
        mark.shnier@gmail.com
        ------------------------------
    • EricEvans_Varga's avatar
      EricEvans_Varga
      Qrew Cadet
      3 years ago
      I couldn't ♥ this formula hard enough!
      Saved me HOURS of research and attempts!

      ------------------------------
      Eric Evans Vargas
      ------------------------------