Sort or Format data in Google Docs?

[Peter McClintock]

A couple of questions about when a database is linked to Google Docs.

1. Is it OK to sort the data in the google sheet, or does this screw up the sync?

2. Is it OK to format the value fields in the google sheet? For example a number field as having 2 decimal places, or format as currency.

Just not sure how far I can go without messing up the synchronisation.

Thanks

Peter.

[JohnO]

I've tested sorting data in Google sheets with a small number of records (10) and the sync still worked fine.

Even adding a record then sorting and syncing still  kept the data intact.

This was only a small number of records, there were only three data fields in each record, and the data was sorted using the data sort functions in Sheets.

I didn't try manual (cut & paste) sorting.

Formatting the data should be fine. It only changes the presentation, not the underlying data.

However I haven't tested it.

Why not try both procedures on a copy of your own data, to see if they work for you.

As always - backup your data, and copy it to an external device before experimenting.

[Peter McClintock]

Thanks. I also did a test on a small number of records and everything was fine. The reason I was no so sure is that on a larger and much more complex database I was getting the message that records had been altered in drive and memento when I tried to sync after the sort. I think, however, that something else related to multiselect values was going on here. I will take your advice and test on a copy of my larger database.

Regarding the formatting of values in Google sheets, I don't think it is a matter only of the presentation of the data. When I format numbers, for example using currency, memento doesn't like it. I will do some tests and try to be specific.

[Peter McClintock]

I did a test for formatting. I formatted a number column with ####.00 and it completely changed the values in Memento. What shows as 88.00 in the Google Sheet has 2147483647 in Memento! So it seems to me that it is not possible to format data in the Sheet. This is a bit of a disappointment as I want to be able to easily run a formatted report of my data.

When I set the format on the column back to Automatic then the Memento values return to their correct values.

[Peter McClintock]

OK. So I have done the sort test on a larger database of 140 records. When I synced the database after sorting the Google Sheet, Memento said that the entries have been changed in both Memento and Drive and offered the choice of which set I wanted to keep. Having selected Drive the database seems to be intact. I was then able to sort again without further issues.

I must admit that without an understanding of how Memento does its record matching I don't have much confidence in this.