Create iSheet columns

Configure column conditions

Add rules to show columns in the iSheets Admin section
Conditional columns allow you to create forms that show relevant fields based on the business logic of your use case or project. Columns are displayed or hidden based on values entered in other columns for that item.
Open the
Admin
 module, then
Active iSheets
. Select
More actions
 for the iSheet, then
Manage columns
.
Select the column that requires a condition.
The
Column condition settings
 section allows you to define the rules that trigger this conditional behaviour when a user enters data into an iSheet item.
For example, an iSheet might have a Country choice column. If a user selects 'United Kingdom', the iSheet will display a 'County' picklist. If a user selects 'United States' or 'Australia', the iSheet displays the relevant 'State' picklist.
If a user selects 'Australia' from the 'Country' choice list, the 'State (AU)' column is displayed.
If the user selects 'United Kingdom' instead, the 'County (UK)' column is displayed.
Multiple conditions may be combined to determine if a column should be displayed. For example, if a user selects 'New York' from the 'State' column and 'New' from the 'Lease Type' column, the multiple-line text column called 'New York Lease Notes' will appear for the user to enter more information:

Configuring column conditions

First, determine if a column should be hidden until the conditions defined are true, or displayed at first and subsequently hidden if the conditions defined are true. By default, the former option,
Display column
, is selected since it is more common to hide conditional columns until the conditions defined are true. However, if the field should be displayed by default and only hidden under certain circumstances, change this setting to
Hide field
.
Add conditions to display (or hide) the column based on the business logic of the use case:
  • Select a column to drive the conditionality. Only certain column types, listed below, may be used in conditions:
    • Single line text
    • Multiple line text (plain text only)
    • Choice
    • Numbers
    • Dates and time
    • User lookup
  • Choose the appropriate operator, such as
    is equal to
     or
    contains
    . The type of column selected determines the available operators
  • Type in the value that should trigger the condition
  • Select
    Add
     to add the condition

Condition operators

When creating a conditional statement, consider how the value entered in the condition field should trigger the condition. For example, the condition may be satisfied if the value of the field is
equal to
 a certain value.
The selected column type determines which operators define the condition trigger. Text fields, such as
single line text
,
multiple line text
,
choice
, and
user lookup
 (including system-generated fields like
Created by
 and
Modified by
 ), may use any of these operators:
  • begins with
  • contains
  • is equal to
  • is not equal to
Number
 and
Date and time
 may use the following operators:
  • is equal to
  • is not equal to
  • is greater than
  • is less than
  • is greater than or equal to
  • is less than or equal to
Text
The
contains
 operator matches any value in the list of choices, including a substring.
For example, we have a choice column which includes all US States, and we define the following condition:
US State contains New
The condition will be met if the state selected is either 'New York', 'New Jersey' or 'New Mexico'.
If the choice field allows multiple selections, selecting any values containing 'New' trigger the condition.
However, if the condition is based on multiple possible values in the same text or choice field, for example, if US State equals New York or California, then create two separate conditions:
US State equals New York
OR
US State equals California
And connect these conditions using the boolean
OR
. More information is below in the section on multiple conditions.
Dates and Numbers
Date and time
 column conditions provide a date picker to select the date condition value.
If a date value trigger requires a date range, create two conditions:
Termination Date
is greater than or equal to
 01 Oct 2025
AND
Termination Date
is less than or equal to
 31 Oct 2025
Combine the conditions with the boolean
AND
. In the above example, if a Termination Date entered falls during October 2025, the condition triggers and a column is displayed or hidden. A numeric range can be created in the same way.
Alternatively, a condition can trigger if a number column value exceeds a defined amount. For example, if a budget estimate entered exceeds a certain threshold, an additional column could display, perhaps for notes about the higher-than-usual budget.
The condition would be as follows:
Budget estimate
is greater than
 10000

Multiple conditions

You may combine multiple conditions so that a column only displays when one or
more
 conditions are met. For example, in a 'new client intake' iSheet, we have a column for a budget estimate that is required under one or both of these circumstances:
  • for matters with a fee cap,
    OR
    .
  • for matters involving new clients.
Then select
OR
 when adding those conditions.
Alternatively, the budget estimate may only be required when
both
 of these conditions are met:
  • for fixed fee matters, that also involve
  • new clients.
In this case, select
AND
 when adding those conditions.
If adding multiple conditions, you may need to use the arrows to adjust the order of conditions, particularly if both AND and OR operators are used.
To rearrange the order of conditions, select the checkbox next to a condition and click the
up
 or
down
 arrow to the right. The arrows are also used when a new condition is added and needs to be sorted.

Negative conditions

Negative condition options are available in Column configuration and View configuration.
The 'is not' or 'does not' options are displayed in the condition menu for both columns and views.

Removing and modifying conditions

To remove a condition, click the checkbox next to the condition and select
Remove
.

Display of conditional columns

Conditional columns display according to their conditional rules when adding, editing or viewing items.
However, if a View includes conditional columns, these columns
are always displayed
 in the table view.

Best practice

Group multiple conditional columns in a section for a cleaner display. The section (and section title) do not appear unless at least one field inside the section is visible. However conditional fields always appear in the iSheets search form, provided that they are searchable, irrespective of whether the condition to show it has been satisfied.

Advanced concepts

Order of operations for more than two conditions and mixed Boolean operators
Consider the following condition: We would like a text column called 'Conditional example field' to display when the Lease Type is 'New' and State (US) equals 'California' or 'New York'.
However, upon testing the condition, the behaviour does not match the business logic required. Instead, the 'Conditional example field' appears when Lease Type equals Renewal and State (US) equals New York.
The order of the conditions has grouped the three conditions based on the
AND
 operator.
Expressed another way, this is our desired condition:
  • Lease Type is equal to New
    AND
     ( State (US) is equal to California
    OR
     State (US) is equal to New York )
But this is the conditional behaviour we get:
  • ( Lease Type is equal to New
    AND
     State (US) is equal to California )
    OR
     State (US) is equal to New York
Reversing the order won't produce the desired conditionality.
In this case, the boolean
AND
 groups the second and third conditions together, as follows:
  • State (US) is equal to California OR (State (US) is equal to New York AND Lease Type is equal to New)
To achieve the desired conditionality, we must do the following:
In this case, we
repeat the 'Lease Type' condition
 to ensure the conditional logic we are after is achieved:
  • (State (US) is equal to California
    AND
     Lease Type is equal to New)
    OR
     (State (US) is equal to New York
    AND
     Lease Type is equal to New)
How to combine multiple conditions with the 'is not equal to' operator
You may choose to use the 'is not equal to' operator if you have a choice column with dozens of value choices, and would like a column to appear for all of those options except one. For example, to display a column for all states in the US except Alaska, configure the conditional column as follows:
  • Display field when State (US)
    is not equal to
     Alaska
If you need to combine more than one of these 'negative' conditions, that is, multiple conditions where a column 'is not equal to' a value, you must choose the appropriate boolean connector to achieve the desired condition.
Consider the following scenario. You would like a conditional column to appear under all circumstances except for when the state selected is Alaska or Hawaii. You may initially configure the conditions as follows:
  • Display field when
  • State (US)
    is not equal to
     Alaska
  • OR
  • State (US)
    is not equal to
     Hawaii
However, upon configuring this conditional column and testing it, you will discover that the conditional column appears no matter which state is selected, including Alaska or Hawaii. Combining
is not equal to
 conditions with the
OR
 operator is the equivalent of asking to display the column, except when the state is not equal to both Alaska and Hawaii, which is impossible given that this column is a single column.
Alternatively, to achieve the desired conditional behaviour, use the following configuration:
  • Display field when
  • State (US)
    is not equal to
     Alaska
  • AND
  • State (US)
    is not equal to
     Hawaii
With this configuration, if either Alaska or Hawaii is selected, the column does not display. Under all other conditions, the column displays.

This article applies to:

  • Product: HighQ
  • Subject: iSheets, Setup

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