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Find unique text between two columns

  • December 7, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 21 views

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I have two columns that currently have the same fields.

Column 1 is a synced column. Column 2 is a copy of Column 1, and we are asking collaborators to go into the base, and add or remove items from Column 2. In Column 3, I want a formula to show me all the items that were added or removed in Column 2 - mostly so we can track those changes and make sure nothing was removed or added incorrectly. Any thoughts on how to do that? Thank you!!!

2 replies

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  • Inspiring
  • 254 replies
  • December 11, 2020

Since you’re saying “items” are being removed from Column 2, I’m assuming the the values in Column 1 are either comma separated, multi-select, or linked records.

Formulas unfortunately don’t do well with complex logic associated with iterating through and/or analyzing lists of data like that. You’d probably be better off writing a script that could be run via a button in the Apps panel. So you’d run that, wait a few moments, and that would populate the correct values to column 3.


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  • Author
  • Participating Frequently
  • 5 replies
  • December 11, 2020

Since you’re saying “items” are being removed from Column 2, I’m assuming the the values in Column 1 are either comma separated, multi-select, or linked records.

Formulas unfortunately don’t do well with complex logic associated with iterating through and/or analyzing lists of data like that. You’d probably be better off writing a script that could be run via a button in the Apps panel. So you’d run that, wait a few moments, and that would populate the correct values to column 3.


Yes, the items in Column 1 are comma separated, and they are linked records in Column 2. It’s unfortunate that I can’t write a formula, but thanks for the suggestion on a script - I’ll look into that!