Format rule that affects one table based on related value in another table

[Patrick_Paul]

I have a table of locations that are associated with many possible employee records in another table. I want to format the location name based on whether any employee associated with that location meets certain requirements (employee columns have a particular value)… How can I do this since the associated employees are a ref list?

[Steve]

You’ve given us no information, so i have nothing to offer but this.

help.appsheet.com

Format Rules: The Essentials

Learn how to change the way information is displayed throughout your app.

[Patrick_Paul]

My apologies, it seemed enough information. To be more specific, I don’t understand how to code the formula for the format rule to “look” at the columns in another table since the only column in the table that establishes a relationship to the other one is a “back reference” list. This may not be possible, but I thought I’d hazard to ask. I didn’t figure you’d want a miles-long explanation of the structure of my tables and columns.

I attempted: [back reference column name (which is a list)].[column in other sheet]=X
But it could not find the “column in other sheet”. Is there another way to accomplish this?

[Marc_Dillon · Accepted solution]

Patrick_Paul:

[back reference column name (which is a list)].[column in other sheet]

You can’t dereference a list like that, it doesn’t make sense. Remove the period and you’ll get a list of all values for [column in other sheet] for all “back-referenced” records. Maybe wrap it in ANY() if you just want to look at one random value from that list. Or use IN() , depending on what exactly your criteria is.

help.appsheet.com

IN()

Is item in list?

[Patrick_Paul]

Thanks, I will give it a try. I am an old-school programmer and database guy, but that was 20+ years ago and haven’t used these skills in a long, long time. My lack of spreadsheet acumen doesn’t help. I come from a land of line numbers and procedural code.