In Numbers can you auto-populate a cell with a date when another cell is populated

ms officenumbers

I'm an avid Excel user and recently I've had to figure out how to use Numbers. So far I've been able to replicate all the Excel functionality that I use in Numbers… except for one thing.

In Excel I can add the following formula…

=IF(A1="", "", IF(B1="", NOW(), B1))

This formula says when a value in added to cell A1 populate cell B1 with the current date. To get this to work you must turn on an Excel feature named iterative calculation (Options==>Formulas==>Enable iterative calculation).

I use this when I'm building an Excel task journal and I want to auto-populate the date.

The important thing about this formula is that the date value is not updated another change is made.

How can I do this in Numbers? How can I auto populate a date value in column "B" when a value is set in column "A"? It's important to keep in mind that once the date is set I don't want it to change.

Here is my attempt at translating this formula in Numbers…

=IF(A2="", "", IF(B2="", NOW(), B2))

I get an error message in Numbers…

This formula can't reference its own cell, or depend on another formula that references this cell.

Thanks

Best Answer

I offer this answer only because at least it provides a workaround, albeit a slightly manual one.

Assuming that B1 is the cell that needs to have the date and time auto-populated when cell A1 is filled in, enter this formula in cell B1:

IF(ISBLANK($A1),"",NOW())

Now, when the time comes that cell A1 is filled in, cell B1 will auto-populate with the date and time.

However, to prevent cell B1 from updating if/when cell A1 is edited again, you now need to do as follows:

After B1 is populated, select cell B1
Use commandC (or go to Edit > Copy) to copy the cell
Use shiftcommandV (or go to Edit > Paste Formula Results)
Now the formula in cell B1 is replaced with the calculated value only, thereby meaning it will no longer calculate in future

NOTES:

In case this is useful for anyone else trying to come up with an answer, I also thought of:

using an AppleScript script to replicate the above, but then realised that using a script would be no quicker that just using the Copy/Paste functionality within Numbers.
creating an Automator service and then allocating a keyboard shortcut to that, but that too would be no quicker as you'd still need to select the cell, so using the built-in shiftcommandV shortcut is no slower than using a customisable shortcut.

Regardless, someone more adept at AppleScript may think of a more elegant solution that works with Numbers to achieve the OP's goal.

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Tracing the forward use of values in formulas in Numbers

I presume you are referring to the formula relationship tool available in Excel:

I don't believe this feature is available in Numbers. You can notify Apple that you would like this feature implemented using their Numbers feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/numbers.html

Getting the First Cell NOT Containing Certain Text in Numbers

As it turns out, I've figured it out. It did require Applescript. What I did was loop through the rows and selected the values in the row where "not" was not present in column B. Here's the Applescript I used via Automator:

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "Numbers"
        tell table "Calculator 1" of sheet 2 of document of front window
            set aRange to "A2:A22"
            set bRange to "B2:B22"
            set aRows to the rows of range aRange
            set bRows to the rows of range bRange

            set correctRow to -1
            set correctCol to -1

            repeat with i from 1 to count of bRows
                set aCell to "A" & (i + 1)
                set bCell to "B" & (i + 1)

                if value of (cell bCell) is not "not" then
                    set correctRow to value of (cell aCell)
                    set correctCol to value of (cell bCell)
                end if
            end repeat

            set the value of (cell "C2") to correctRow
            set the value of (cell "C4") to correctCol
        end tell

        display dialog "Updated!"
    end tell

    return input
end run

Keep in mind that the cells I used are specific to my spreadsheet, but generally this method could be applied for any 2D MATCH() function.

Create a table has the name of the each row in each row of the header column, and use the desired MATCH() function per row in this way (see the picture of the table in my question).
Use this Applescript to loop through the MATCH() functions and find the correct row and column. Change "C2" to whichever cell will be your Correct Row and "C4" to whichever cell will be your Correct Column.
Use the INDEX() function to get the value of the cell and put it into another cell, using the coordinates the Applescript calculated for you.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Tracing the forward use of values in formulas in Numbers

Getting the First Cell NOT Containing Certain Text in Numbers

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