How to auto compute to leave NOTHING value for a decimal type column

[Nicolás]

Hi
I have a decimal column with auto compute value (it adds and divide the values from the other columns, decimals also) the problem is that if the row is updated with no values at all, the autocompute will put 0,0 and this will be added to the sheet. In the formula i do have conditional formulas so that in case that the other columns are 0, then the autocompute column should put the value " " but it wont do it, still it gives 0,0, probably because as decimal wont accept a blank space, nevertheless how could i make this autocompute column to become blank (or any sign that is not a number) when the row is updated and the other columns have empty values?

[Nicolás · Accepted solution]

Just solve it using IFS !!! i was reading other posts…thanks to appsheet team

[Jonesy]

Hi Nicolas,

I have been struggling with this same problem all day, I searched the community posts and found yours, can you be a little more specific in the formula you used please?

Thanks, James

[SkrOYC]

What have you done to this point? "" isn’t working for you?

[WillowMobileSys]

Jonesy:

I have been struggling with this same problem all day,

There has been a bug reported on how the empty string ("") is treated in numeric fields and AppSheet is looking into a solution.

For now you can use the numeric functions to assign an empty string:

DECIMAL("")
NUMBER("")

[Jonesy]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the quick response, I have tried DECIMAL("") but I still get 0.00 as an initial default value. Maybe I can try explain what I need.
So I have three columns, each with column type Decimal. The columns are as follows:

(A) Fertiliser Rate Per Hectare
(B) Area Fertiliser Applied In Hectares
(C) Amount Of Fertiliser Used

Both A and B values are manually entered (No initial value)
Column C however contains the following expression
[Fertiliser Rate Per Hectare]*[Area Fertiliser Applied In Hectares]

Which works great to give me the answer, however, in my app I have multiple operations and a lot of time do not wish to make a fertiliser entry but unfortunately each saved entry contains

Amount Of Fertiliser Used

0.00

Which Id rather not have unless actually completing a fertiliser entry. Is there a way to not have it show up unless I have entered values in (a) and (B)

Thanks, James

[SkrOYC]

Jonesy:

[Fertiliser Rate Per Hectare]*[Area Fertiliser Applied In Hectares]

IF(
  AND(
    ISBLANK([Fertiliser Rate Per Hectare]),
    ISBLANK([Area Fertiliser Applied In Hectares])
  ),
  "",
  [Fertiliser Rate Per Hectare]*[Area Fertiliser Applied In Hectares]
)

[Jonesy]

SkrOYC:

IF(
  AND(
    ISBLANK([Fertiliser Rate Per Hectare]),
    ISBLANK([Area Fertiliser Applied In Hectares])
  ),
  "",
  [Fertiliser Rate Per Hectare]*[Area Fertiliser Applied In Hectares]
)

@SkrOYC Thanks very much for the equation it makes sense to me and I really thought it was going to do the trick although unfortunately I’m still getting the same thing in the saved entry.

Amount Of Fertiliser Used

0.00

Its a strange one. Any other ideas a to how to solve this? Thanks in advance

@WillowMobileSystems I also tried DECIMAL("") for the initial values of columns A & B but in the form it just reduces the initial value to 0 rather than nothing

Thanks, James

[WillowMobileSys]

Jonesy:

I also tried DECIMAL("") for the initial values of columns A & B but in the form it just reduces the initial value to 0 rather than nothing

Hmm, there was an announcement that they had rolled back some implementation surrounding this issue. Maybe that affected it? I know it worked a couple weeks ago.

[Jonesy]

Hi Guys, I figured out a solution. I did it by creating an action. This way there are no initial values in any of the form columns and as a result do not show any 0.00 value unless the action is fired. The action contains the maths equation to be performed. I then created a behavioural condition that only allows the action to be performed when the entry is a fertiliser operation. Thanks for the help all the same. Maybe the DECIMAL(’’’’) will start working again at some stage and the equation will work as it should.
Thanks again,
James

[WillowMobileSys]

Jonesy:

Maybe the DECIMAL(’’’’) will start working again

I am hoping that you won’t need a function at all. Assign “” to get empty string. Assign 0 to get zero. it should be that easy.