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...
App builders
Formulas and functions
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


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Mark Shnier (YQC)
Quick Base Solution Provider
Your Quick Base Coach
http://QuickBaseCoach.com
mark.shnier@gmail.com
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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?

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Jennifer Schafer
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  • 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

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    Mark Shnier (YQC)
    Quick Base Solution Provider
    Your Quick Base Coach
    http://QuickBaseCoach.com
    mark.shnier@gmail.com
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    • JenniferSchafer's avatar
      JenniferSchafer
      Qrew Member
      6 years ago
      My parent table is Participants and child is Enrollments.
      I attached a report that shows numeric summaries of how many programs they are actively enrolled in and have exited. Also, combined text summary fields of what those programs are. As you can see if they don't have an exit date yet there is no program in the exit column just black dots. I included screenshots of the summary fields. How would I filter out the blank children?

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      Jennifer Schafer
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      • MarkShnier__You's avatar
        MarkShnier__You
        Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
        6 years ago
        Can you filter out on the combined text summary field where the exit date is blank?

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        Mark Shnier (YQC)
        Quick Base Solution Provider
        Your Quick Base Coach
        http://QuickBaseCoach.com
        mark.shnier@gmail.com
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