Applies to
- Pro
- Business
- Enterprise
Capabilities
Who can use this capability
Users that are the sheet Owner or have Admin sharing permissions can create and edit formulas on a sheet. Users with Editor sharing permissions can also create and edit formulas in unlocked cells on a sheet.
Reference children, parents, and ancestors with hierarchy functions
Hierarchy functions allow you to include cells in other functions based on their indent level in a sheet.
You can use hierarchy in Smartsheet to indent or outdent groups of cells to better show relationships between groups of data. You can place a hierarchy function inside of another function, for example, to automatically reference all indented child cells underneath a parent, even as new child rows are added to the parent row. For example, you could use the following formula to sum all of the child values in a particular column:
=SUM(CHILDREN())
For more information about how to use the functions that allow you to work with hierarchy, see the following in the Smartsheet Function reference:
- CHILDREN Function Reference all child cells underneath a parent.
- PARENT Function Reference the direct parent cell of a child cell.
- ANCESTORS Function Reference all parent cells to a child cell.
Hierarchy functions are not supported in cross-sheet formulas. Attempting to use the CHILDREN, PARENT, and ANCESTORS functions in a cross sheet formula will result in an #UNSUPPORTED CROSS-SHEET FORMULA error in the cell containing the formula. Learn more about formula error messages and referencing data from other sheets.
Still need help?
Use the Formula Handbook template to find more support resources, and view 100+ formulas, including a glossary of every function that you can practice working with in real time, and examples of commonly used and advanced formulas.
Find examples of how other Smartsheet customers use this function or ask about your specific use case in the Smartsheet online Community.