The logic here is that a Product Family value might be empty. This is used to create a single line of text. Now, when creating a new item the lookup is used to select an existing Product Vendor but the plain text version of the field can then be used for calculations, like the Full Product Name. The formula for my Full Product Name column is: it applies to all items) and an Update List Item action which updates the Current Item to set my new column (Product Vendor Plain Text) to the Technologies:Product Vendor value ( using the fx button to select).

The workflow (which I named Set Product Vendor) is a basic workflow with one step. The workaround seems to be to create an additional text column and a workflow in SharePoint Designer that sets a value in this field. I believe this is because they are based on internal SharePoint IDs, rather than the information displayed. And then there is a Similar Products column – for which Product Name is not a clear enough lookup – I need a combination of Product Vendor, Product Family (where present), Product Name and Product Version – For example a concatenation of Microsoft + Office + SharePoint Server + 2007.Ĭreating a calculated column (Full Product Name) for the “in-list” (Product Family, Product Name, Product Version) is straightforward but certain column types (Lookup, Person, Group) are not available for calculated columns. That’s all fine but I also have Product Family, Product Name and Product Version columns. I use a lookup on Name from the Vendor list to populate the available entries for a Technology item’s Product Vendor column. That’s really useful when building a system with several lists of related items, for example Technologies and Vendors.

SharePoint lists have the ability to include columns that are lookups from other lists. I laughed at the time but the last few weeks have seen me spending far more time working on a couple of SharePoint-based systems than I would like, so maybe Klout is less of a measure of social influence than one of future gazing… A few months ago, Klout suggested I knew something about SharePoint.

Calculated fields in sharepoint 2013