Use First Name in Users list

hi, I know we can now use the Users list in our modules, but can we use any of the other properties from the User list?

Similar to the new U/X, I like to show a welcome greeting on our landing dashboards, and we can get the greeting to show the full email address based off the users list, by someone's email address is a bit impersonal.

If possible, I'd like to be able to look up the first name column from the users list.

So my greeting would be 'Hello Andrew', rather than 'Hello Andrew.Clark@xxxxxx'

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Andrew.

Accepted answers

kavinkumar

HI @AndrewClark,

You can bring the first name by writing the below logic.

@{"HI " & IF FIND(".", LEFT(NAME(ITEM(Users)), FIND("@, NAME(ITEM(Users))))) > 1 THEN LEFT(NAME(ITEM(Users)), FIND(.", NAME(ITEM(Users))) - 1) ELSE LEFT(NAME(ITEM(Users)), FIND("@", NAME(ITEM(Users))) - 1)}

Use First Name in Users list.PNG

Expected Result Use First Name in Users list 1.PNG

I hope this helps!!

Regards,

Kavin.

All comments

DavidSmith

If you build out a module dimensioned by the users list, you could have two line items for first and last name, then you could publish those that line item(s) to the dashboard

Hope that helps

David

AndrewClark

Thanks David, that's how I'd like it to work. However, I don't know how to reference the 'First Name' property of the Users list.

I've got the full email address working by writing 'NAME(ITEM(Users))', but it doesn't let me select the 'First Name' column, or change the formula to 'NAME(ITEM(Users.First Name)) for example. Any thoughts on the specifics?

Thanks, Andrew.

kavinkumar

HI @AndrewClark,

You can bring the first name by writing the below logic.

Use First Name in Users list.PNG

Expected Result Use First Name in Users list 1.PNG

I hope this helps!!

Regards,

Kavin.

AndrewClark

Thanks a lot Kavin, that works fine!

Cheers, Andrew.

DavidSmith

Ok, you probably know what I'm going to say

"just because you can doesn't mean you should"

But seriously, hopefully you know by now that we should avoid complex formulae

Planual rule 2.02-18

https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Planual/ct-p/Planual

This is a much more efficient solution

1. In the module by users add 4 line items as shown

The formulas are:

Find . - FIND(".", NAME(ITEM(Users)))

Find @ - FIND("@", NAME(ITEM(Users)))

First Name - LEFT(NAME(ITEM(Users)), 'Find .' - 1)

Last Name - MID(NAME(ITEM(Users)), 'Find .' + 1, Find @ - 'Find .' - 1)

David

kavinkumar

HI @DavidSmith,

I think above soln will not work if the user has only one name!! That is the reason I added one more condition to that formula (Looking little big 🙂 & complex). Example attached below.

Use First Name in Users list 2.PNG

DavidSmith

True, but you can use the LENGTH() formula to work for that. My point is splitting up the formulae is better

But, if the email address doesn't reflect the actual first and last names, it would be better to import into the module from an export of the users tab, removing the need for any formulae

David

harish_bk

Hi @DavidSmith

If we can see a documented proof that splitting formula is best way it would be really helpful.

We normally try to have huge formulas in one line item due to workspace sizing limitations and your documents would give us insight to do the best.

DavidSmith

@harish_bk

There is no formal documented evidence, the effect will vary case by case

However, some examples are:

11 min open times reduce to 60s

30s calculations reduce to 1s

a 10 second calculation reduce to 0.01s

The way the Anaplan engine works with the hyper block and multi threading, the more formulas are broken up the more task be run in parallel and split into sub tasks.

It is often better to have a slightly larger model that runs much quicker than a small model that is crammed with massive formulae. Model size does not correlate to performance. Model design does.

Massive, complex formulae breaks so many rules within the PLANS standard I can't list them all here.

We have put together the standard based on proven results; so, huge massive formulas are bad practice and should be avoided whenever possible

If you haven't already, please read the various articles linked to in the Planual and also see the two part blog on sparsity for more information.

https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Planual/ct-p/Planual

https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Blog/The-Planual-Rises/ba-p/48321

https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Blog/The-Truth-About-Sparsity-Part-1/bc-p/44584

https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Blog/The-Truth-About-Sparsity-Part-2/bc-p/44778

David

harish_bk

Hi @DavidSmith

Yes we do know about the articles mentioned .

Thanks for the links anyway.

When we say size its the maximum workspace size limitation and was not related to performance.

Marina Ketelslegers

How about this: user email is coded like marl56@xxx.com where First Name would be Marina? is there a way to get to the property First Name from the User list?

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