Change a list's columns

A list's columns can change after it has rows. Bizomate checks every row against the change first: if any row would not fit — a value that is not a number, an empty Required cell, a repeated unique value — nothing changes, and you see the rows in the way.

Who can do this

Workspace Admins. Editors and Viewers do not see Columns.

Steps

1. Select Lists in the bar at the top of the page.
2. Open the list's ⋮ menu at the end of its row and select Columns — or open the list and select Columns at the top right. A panel opens, headed Columns · Processed invoices, with the number of columns and rows under it.
3. Make the changes you need:
   • Add a column: select + Add column, choose its type, and type its name in the box that says column_name.
   • Change a type: choose Text, Number, True/false or Date and time in the menu beside the column.
   • Make it Required, or not: tick or untick Required.
   • Reorder: drag a column by its ⋮⋮ handle.
   • Delete a column: select the bin beside it.
   • Choose the unique column: pick it under Unique column, or None for no unique column.
4. Select Save columns. The button reads Saving while it works.
   • If you deleted a column from a list that has rows, a box asks Delete invoice_no? — What all 1,163 rows hold in it goes for good. Steps that set it will read Needs setup. Select Delete and save to go on, or Keep them to go back.

A toast says Processed invoices saved — Its columns are as you left them.

Rename a column

Renaming a column is saved on its own, as soon as you confirm it.

1. In the Columns panel, select the pencil beside the column's name. A box opens: Rename invoice_no? — Nothing in the rows changes. What changes is the name steps read it by.
2. In New name, type the new name.
3. Read What this touches:
   • 2 steps that pick this column from a list follow the new name on their own.
   • 1 expression that spells it out — {{ steps.find_invoice.invoice_no }} in Monthly close — does not. It will read nothing until you edit it.
   • Or No step reads this column yet, so nothing else changes.
4. Select Rename column.

A toast says invoice_no renamed to invoice_number — Nothing in the rows changed. Edit any expressions it listed, in the designer.

What happens next

• A new column starts empty on every row. The panel says so: A new column starts empty on all 1,163 rows. It cannot be Required until every row has a value in it.
• A changed type converts every value, or changes nothing: 62400 stays 62400 as a number, yes becomes Yes as true/false.
• A deleted column takes its values with it, from every row, and that cannot be undone. Steps that set that column show Needs setup, and a workflow cannot be published until they are fixed.
• Choosing a unique column checks that every row holds a different value in it.
• List steps follow the change: they keep columns by an id of their own, so a renamed or moved column is still the same column to them.

Good to know

• The panel warns before you delete: This list already holds 1,163 rows. Deleting a column deletes what every row holds in it, and that cannot be undone. Export the list first if you might want the values. See Export a list as a CSV file.
• The unique column is always Required.
• Taking the unique column away makes Add or update a row unavailable in every workflow that uses this list.
• Limits: up to 50 columns; column names in lower_snake_case, up to 64 characters.
• Show me these rows, under a refusal, opens the list filtered to the rows in the way, so you can fix them.

If something goes wrong

Related

• Create a list
• Rename a list
• See which workflows use a list
• Write to a list from a workflow