Would like to export data from configurable list to multiple cells instead of one

  • karenhassell
    Asked on June 28, 2017 at 12:54 PM

    https://www.jotform.com/build/71428737392161

     

    On my form, I have a section for additional presenters.  I just downloaded the current submissions into an Excel format to capture these data prior to making a minor change to the form so I didn't lose any data.

     

    When looking at that spreadsheet, I noticed that in the section Additional Presenters section all those data are funneled into one cell.  Is it possible to have these data download into separate cells?  I would like the data in four cells:  Title/First/Last; Institution; Role; email for each additional presenter listed.

     

    Is this possible?  Or, could you suggest a modification to my form to make this work.  

     

    Thank you so much for your help.

  • David JotForm Support
    Replied on June 28, 2017 at 2:58 PM

    Due to the programmatic way our system works, including generation of Excel files, each form field / form question always goes to its own cell in the Excel or CSV file.

    This applies to all form fields, even those that accept multiple inputs - such as Configurable List widget, Infinite List widget, or a regular Matrix field. Each widget or form field is technically one field, no matter how many "sub-fields" it may have, so all the data collected through that form field goes to one cell in the Excel output.

    Excel file must have a predictable number of columns, where it must know in advance which Excel column will hold data from which form field. If that weren't the case, the variable number of possible columns from the Configurable List widget would cause all the columns that come after Configurable List to be placed on a different column in each row.

    When our system is generating the Excel file, it must generate it with each form field corresponding to a single cell in the sheet. If you want to split it up later on into multiple other columns/cells, you may want to use the Text-to-Columns function of your Excel software:

    https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Split-text-into-different-cells-30b14928-5550-41f5-97ca-7a3e9c363ed7