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  1. Jira Data Center
  2. JRASERVER-63747

Possibility to export multi-select fields of issue into single column in CSV

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    • Resolution: Unresolved
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      Description

      CSV Export for “Select List (multiple choices)” fields, is very unfriendly compared with prior Export to Excel

      I can’t say the CSV is actually wrong, since it may be syntactically correct per CSV file format.  BUT, I consider this is a significant degradation compared with the prior direct Export to Excel, because the prior version was much easier to use the resulting Excel file.

      How to replicate

      • Create “Test-Field” of type “Select List (multiple choices)”
        • Set 4 options for the field: “option1”, “option2”, “option3”, “option4”
      • Create a ticket and set “Test-field” with the following options
        • “option1”, “option2”, “option3”
      • Run a filter with the ticket and show field “Test-Field”
        • Export / “CSV (Current fields)”
        • Open directly in Excel (or view the CSV as well)

      Result in Excel

      • The 3 options for this ticket are each in their own Excel column as if they are totally separate data fields
        • Row 1 (field names) will have the same field name repeated
          • Cells A1, B1, C1 will all be = “Custom field (Test-Field)”
        • Row 2 (Data) will have the 3 options
          • Cell A2 = option1, B2 = option2, C2 = option3
        • Note – If there were 4 options selected for this field, then there would be 4 columns of data
        • So the amount of columns used is variable based on the maximum number needed for the ticket with the most selections
          • For example, say my filter has 100 records
          • Most records have 3 options selected, but one of them has 10 options selected
          • 10 columns will be created for this field, but unused for most of the records

      Expected results (based on prior Export to Excel option in previous JIRA)

      • 1 column with all the options, each separated by a comma
      • No change in number of columns regardless of how many options selected for this field
      • Row 1 (field names)
        • Cells A1 = “Test-Field”
      • Row 2 (Data)
        • Cell A2 = “option1, option2, option3”

      Why is this a problem

      • We use filter with a large number of records, columns and do analysis, tables, charts etc in Excel
      • When reviewing, this forces much scrolling left to right to find the actual data, because many of our multiple choice columns may have up to 10 values used
      • Some of our work in Excel is automated and based on where a column of data is expected

      Note – this is using Excel 2016 (Office 365 ProPlus)

              Unassigned Unassigned
              80ffda92aa8e RD Old
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                Created:
                Updated: