Collect () function with multiple/varying formats

The Collect() function is great for collecting values, however; becomes problematic when trying to bring in a combination of numbers and percentages, and impossible when trying to bring in text or list items.

It would be great if the collect formula could follow the same formatting as the source module (i.e. no need to set a formatting for the collect() line item as it will just bring in whatever the formatting is in the source module for the line item in the line item subset). I realise this would mean varying formats within a single line item (which Anaplan cannot currently do), but this would certainly remove a pain point I've come across many times.

Comments

bshepley

I've run into this exact same issue several times. In the specific case I'm thinking of, the client ultimately was 'ok' settling with the understanding that, since the column header for the column holding the percent values said "Percent", they knew .02 was 2%. However, I agree that it is visually not as appealing or straightforward.

I've actually thought for a while that it would be cool if line item formats could be formula-driven. It would provide a lot of flexibility if a single line item could be whole number, percent and also turn suffix on/off. I've had several cases where I wanted to switch between whole umbers and percents, as well as times where I wanted a suffix on some numbers and not others. I'm wondering if this would be a total killer to processing times, though.

CommunityMember113866

@bshepley I think you're right about the processing time, but if we could somehow vary formats it would be amazing. I guess I was thinking about making it possible to turn off (as a manual exception) the line item --> format relationship in the collect() line item. It could be a boolean in the blueprint that allows a modeller to deactivate line item driven format and follow whatever format is in the source line item subset module (or any source module for that matter), thus avoiding any complex/intensive processing. This would also save a lot of time when building references from one module to another (i.e. no need to change formatting in the target to match the source. Instead, just turn off the formatting in the target module line item and allow the source module to drive the formatting). I've mocked this up below. Thoughts?

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