Formula - Getting the first item in 'Rank' order

Get Help
1

So, I have an entity “Task”, and it has sub Tasks. Sub Tasks can be marked completed or not, of course.

The Sub Tasks are drag-n-dropped into the order that makes sense for completion, and some may be completed along the way… so for example, a Task that is in progress could look like:

Task: Get Groceries
SubTask: Drive to the store [DONE]
SubTask: Put groceries in cart [not done]
SubTask: Pay for groceries [not done]
…

I’m trying to create a formula on the parent Task that returns the “first” non-completed task. This is what I have now:

[Sub-Tasks]
  .Filter(State.Name != "Done")
  .Sort([Creation Date])
  .First()

The problem is the .Sort([Creation Date]), because that’s not really what I want (but of course you HAVE to Sort before a First). Sorting on Creation Date works if the tasks were always entered chronologically in the right order, but as soon as I remember a step I forgot, add that new step, and drag it into its correct spot, Creation Date is now suddenly not the correct Sort order.

I know there’s not a way to Filter / Sort based on the Entity’s position in a view, but what about a collection. Since I’m accessing the specific Parent Task, is there no way to grab the first Sub Task Entity in the order shown in that Parent’s Entity view?

2

If you leave the sort parameter empty, it will sort on rank, which is the positional order.
e.g. Sort().First()

3

Thanks @Chr1sG ! I’d considered this (and even tried it), but what I was not realizing was that if my Entity view of the SubTasks had a sort applied, Sort().First() ignores that. Which makes sense, now that I think about it, but it took me a bit of time to realize what was happening.

Thanks for the fast responses as always, Chris!

4

It shouldn’t work as you have described (assuming I have understood).
If your formula uses Sort().First() then the application of a sort on the relation field view should have no impact on the formula result.
:+1:

5

That’s correct, that was the behavior I was seeing as well (I just did a poor job of explaining it).

1 Like
6

OK, my bad. I misunderstood what you meant.