CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sharepointsharepoint-2013sharepoint-2016
Fab
Fab

Reputation: 954

Sharepoint 2013/2016 Calculated Column stops calculating

I have a calculated column in SharePoint On-Premises that shows the number of days till a due date which works perfectly for a day or so then stops calculating, but if I go to the list settings and click the column and click ok then it calculates again?

Has anyone experienced an issue similar to this. I had this issue in both 2013 but within a few weeks moved to 2016 and still the same issue.

I've tried " " blank and also "" empty so not sure if that is causing the issue??

Is it a problem with the formula?

Here is the formula:

 =IF(ISBLANK([Due Date])," ",
IF(ISERROR(DATEDIF(NOW(),[Due Date],"d"))," ",DATEDIF(NOW(),[Due Date],"d")))

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1715

Answers (1)

Thriggle
Thriggle

Reputation: 7059

Calculated columns cannot contain volatile functions, which includes those that depend on the current date.

The values in SharePoint columns--even in calculated columns--are stored in SharePoint's underlying SQL Server database.

The calculations in calculated columns are not performed upon page load; rather, they are recalculated only whenever an item is changed (in which case the formula is recalculated just for that specific item), or whenever the column formula is changed (in which case the formula is recalculated for all items).

If you need to show a dynamic value that changes with the passage of time, you have a few alternatives.

Client-Side Rendering

Consider using client-side rendering which lets you use JavaScript to dynamically determine how records in a list view are displayed. This JavaScript runs upon page load, so it can handle current time-dependent values much better than a calculated column.

To use client-side rendering, you create a JavaScript file that controls how the view displays. You upload that file to somewhere on SharePoint where people will have at least Read access to it, then edit the list view web part that you want to display differently and set its "JSLink" property to point to your JavaScript file.

Check out this answer for an example of using a JSLink file to spoof a dynamic date field.

Microsoft also provides some documentation here but I think they do more work than is necessary (creating an entire new list definition project in Visual Studio for their example instead of just creating a JSLink JavaScript file for an existing list).

Other Options

A few other options are mentioned in the older question linked above:

  1. Conditional Formatting: You can apply conditional formatting to highlight records that meet certain criteria. This can be done using SharePoint Designer or HTML/JavaScript.

  2. Filtered List views: Since views of lists are queried and generated in real time, you can use volatile values in list view filters. You can set up a list view web part that only shows items where Created is equal to [Today]. Since you can place multiple list view web parts on one page, you could have one section for today's items, and another web part for all the other items, giving you a visual separation.

  3. A workflow, timer job, or scheduled task: You can use a repeating process to set the value of a normal (non-calculated) column on a daily basis. You need to be careful with this approach to ensure good performance; you wouldn't want it to query for and update every item in the list if the list has surpassed the list view threshold, for example.

To expand on the Filtered List Views option, you can have a view that shows only items that are due within a certain number of days. For example, you can display all the items due within 7 days by filtering where the Due Date field is less than [Today]+7 and Due Date is greater than or equal to [Today]. You could also sort the view to show the items with earlier due dates closer to the top.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions