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Thursday, December 2, 2010

QOTD: Filter a Column with Multiple Users

Author: Eric Alexander, Moderator, Stump the Panel

Dave_S writes on Stump the Panel:

I have a list that contains 3 user (peoplepicker) columns. Two of the columns only allow for a single entry (user) so filtering on [ME] works fine. The 3rd column gets its users from workflow and allows for multiple users (seperated by semi-colon) so filtering for "3rd column contains [ME] does not work.

I don’t believe I can overcome this by creating a data view web part as the source includes a combined (joined) datasource and the view needs to be a datasheet view.

I would really appreciate your suggestions, a method to filter a column with multiple users.

Thanks,

Dave

This can still be done out of the box using a PersonColum is equal to [ME] filter. If you try to set a Contains [ME] filter, you’ll receive an error message that the column type isn’t valid for that type of filter.


My theory is that there is some sort of code in the column definition that is automatically adding a contains or something similar to the code when the [Me] parameter is used. This is just conjecture, but it would explain why you can use is equal to [Me] to function like a contains. I’d be interested to know the “why” as to how this works.

Author: Eric Alexander, Moderator, Stump the Panel

Eric Alexander is a SharePoint Administrator working in the Higher Education sector. He wears many hats in this role and enjoys leveraging SharePoint to build solutions to solve problems across campus. You can find him on Twitter as PirateEric and lurking in the Stump the Panel forums.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/EricsSharepointAdventures

 

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2 Responses to “QOTD: Filter a Column with Multiple Users”
  1. Thanks for answering this, Eric. This has been an annoyance, and I am going to see what I can do to update a couple of my key views.

  2. Manny says:

    I have been using the List and Document Library Filter by Peter Allen. http://www.bitsofsharepoint.com/ExamplePoint/Site/ListSearch.aspx
    It works great across all list columns, including multiple selection boxes. I think this bit of functionality fills a huge gap in SharePoint. You just add his code in a CEWP above the list and it displays in a nice clean “search” box above your list.


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