Unable to delete a virtual column

[David_Musselwhi]

I am having trouble deleting a virtual column. From the docs it says to uncheck some box but I do not see that option and don’t know if the docs are out of date. I can go into the details for that column and choose delete and the column does disappear but it re-appears when I save.

[Steve]

The document you mentioned certainly sounds out of date. Can you point me to it?

Delete the virtual column from within its configuration:

I’m not sure why it reappears, though. How are you saving? Are you clicking the blue SAVE button?

[David_Musselwhi]

Thanks.

Here is the link to the outdated doc: https://help.appsheet.com/en/articles/919891-virtual-columns

The procedure you illustrated is exactly what I am doing. When I delete the column it does appear to be deleted immediately (i.e. it is no longer visible). When I save it re-appears (very strange). I have double checked to make sure it is not referenced in any other views and it is not.

[Steve]

Thank you for the link–I’ll try to get it updated.

I cannot explain the behavior you’re getting when attempting to delete the virtual column. I encourage you to engage support@appsheet.com directly, as it may be a bug or some corruption of your app config.

[David_Musselwhi]

Thanks, I have sent an e-mail to support.

[Steve]

I’ve overhauled the Virtual Columns doc. Feedback welcome.

[WillowMobileSys]

When you create a Ref type column you will get a Virtual Column automatically generated in the Table being Ref’d.

For example, I have a WorkOrders Table that has a Ref column to select a Customer from the Customers Table. AppSheet will automatically generate in my Customers Table a Virtual Column named “Related WorkOrders”.

This actually works in my favor because I don’t have to do a thing to get the list of Orders a Customer has placed. Its already there!!

I don’t think you can remove them. They should do not harm.

[BenBl]

Huh. I had the same behaviour and I’ve fixed it using a weird workaround. Solution: In the ref_rows formula in the virtual column that keeps reappearing, change one of the parameters to a typo – just mess up the value. Save. The virtual column then disappeared.

Edit: spoke too soon. If I refresh the page after saving, the virtual column pops up again.

[Lynn]

You can use a show if expression to hide them