Force Column Formats in Table

💬 App Building
1

I'm using dynamic column headings for a series of tables which represent a moving year of data. Each month when new data comes in the last month drops out of the table and a new month is added. The solution works fine to ensure the columns display in the correct order even though it doesn't always take the verbatim column name, changing "%CH1MO" to "Ch 1 mo" for instance, but I guess I can live with that. What I can't abide is not displaying the format correctly.

In particular, the tables often want to format percentage data as Tags. All the data from a query, for the columns in question, comes in formatted as XX%. But often the data qets switched to a Tag format.

I can force each case to String since some “NAs” are mixed in but, when the data is updated each month, I suspect it will revert to Tags for the new months.

When using dynamic column headings, how can I ensure the data will be the correct format each time new data loads. Or, if I fix it once, will it stick with subsequent updates.

I don’t want to have to fix this every month for new data.

3

Hey @toddat!

I believe you are going to need to parse the item for the dynamic column format and then determine the right type based on what you see.

For example, the percentage columns in your example might be picked up with {{ item.includes(‘%’) ? ‘percent’ : ‘auto’ }} in the Format setup – however this would try to convert a string to a percentage value which might not give you the best results. It also wouldn’t help with values like ‘%CH1MO’… but you could add that into your formatting check discretely {{ item === ‘%CH1MO’ ? ‘string’ : item.includes('%') ? 'percent' : ‘auto’ }}

Link to valid dynamic column types (expand the section below the bulleted list): Configure columns in the Table component | Retool Docs

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Thanks! I see where you’re going with that. I’ll give it a try. Using includes(…) should take care of most cases. I can also change the column names in the query to create consistent patterns.

1 Like
5

Hey @toddat,

Thanks for reaching out to the Retool community!

I believe what @pyrrho said is spot on here. Once configured in the dynamic column settings, the format logic will persist across data updates. The dynamic column configuration is part of your table component setup, not tied to specific data instances which makes this easier.

Let us know if that helps fix it. If not, provide a few details on why not and how its still breaking and I can dig into further what else to try.

Regards,
John | Retool Support