When you allow deletes, how do you manage the growing number of blank rows in the sheet?

[WillowMobileSys]

When we Delete a row from a table in the app, the result in the sheet is a blank row. For large tables where deletes are performed frequently, this can become a problem as each blank row needs to be inspected for the decision if it should be included in retrieval or not. In large tables over time, the blanks can degrade performance.

So, I’m curious…how do YOU manage YOUR sheets to keep them scrubbed of the blank rows?

[LeventK]

A time triggered Google Apps Script

[WillowMobileSys]

A script seems like the best way but, of course, extra time and effort to create and maintain.

One thought was to keep the rows sorted so that blank rows are always moved to the end. Then they are “reused” when a new data row is added. But, alas, it doesn’t seem any sorting can be persisted within the sheet.

[LeventK]

@WillowMobileSystems
With scripting it’s possible.

[Marc_Dillon]

I just ignore it

[Austin]

Databases dont have blank rows

[WillowMobileSys]

Hmm, that is a very good point! So why does AppSheet simply blank out the sheet rows instead of physically deleting them?

[shahappsheet]

This is the limitation of AppSheet with many others. If I knew these limitations before, I wouldn’t jump on it. I don’t know about future, but now I am regretting, sorry to say. I am surprised when I found myself that there is no option to show sum of a column, if I am not mistaken.

[Austin]

might have to do with formulas that the user could have in their sheet that might reference specific rows and may not update that the row has moved or something that has to do with _rownumber