Create Combined Column

IN THIS ARTICLE

A custom combined column allows you to create a new field using information from other fields as input. Combined columns allow for creating logic conditions to specify how to concatenate and format multiple Relativity Field inputs. This can be very useful in generating a detailed Privilege Description field for your privilege logs. Custom combined columns are not available outside of MA privilege logs unless the custom combined column is part of a finalized log.

Create Combined Column steps

Use these steps to create a combined column using Relativity and MA fields. See the Combined Columns Example section for a GIF showing how to create a combined column. See the section Create Combined Column Details for these basic steps described in detail.

  1. Select an "open" privilege log, then select the Create Combined Column option from the COLUMNS button menu.

  2. Enter a Column Name at the top of the Create Combined Column for Privilege Log page.

  3. Select an option for Document Selection next to IF for your first rule: All documents or Create Condition.

  4. If Create Condition was selected, the Add Condition modal window displays to create the rule logic for the combined column. Select the Field Name + Type, then the Operator (equals, greater than, etc.). See the section Document Selection section below.

  5. Once you have completed your Document Selection for this rule, fill in the Concatenated Values box with at least one value, field or free text. Type @ and the field name to add a field and/or use quotation marks around words/phrases to add free text, for example, “email” and “regarding.”

  6. (Optional) Add formatting options for field values.

  7. Click Test to determine if you are getting the desired results.

  8. (Optional) If you want to add another rule, press Add Rule under ELSE to add a new rule row. Repeat steps 3-7.

  9. (Optional) If you added multiple rules, drag the rules up and down to determine “trumping” order, that is, which rule supersedes the other rule(s). Rules with All documents or All remaining documents selected in Document Selection must appear as the last rule in the list.

  10. Press Create or Create and Add to Log to create the combined column.

Document Selection

Document selection determines which documents in the privilege log are affected by a rule. The document selection criteria for each rule can be All documents/All remaining documents or Create condition. If you select All documents/All remaining documents, the ADD RULE button disappears, and you cannot add additional rules. If you select Create condition, a modal window appears asking you to select the field to create the condition. Search for the desired Field Name, for example, Author or Date Sent, or filter by Field Type, for example, Date, Long Text, Yes/No, etc.

Once a field is selected, click NEXT to move to a new modal window with condition options based on the field selected type.

Add Condition (Date Type)

Click ADD.

Concatenated values

Concatenated Values adds the values in the combined column field to create new values. Each field’s value is added along with any free text to create the full value. Type @ to show the menu of all available fields. Begin typing the field name to narrow the list. Please select a field from the list to add it to the Concatenated Values field. When adding a field, open the Field Attributes list and select then edit field attributes. See more details below. Click out of the Field Attributes list to close it. Type " (opening quotation mark) to enter free text and close the free text off with a closing " (closing quotation mark), for example, “This is a description of a field.”

Assign formatting

You can assign formatting attributes to your Concatenated Values fields by clicking on the field.

Case formatting

Case formatting applies to all fields except for dates and numbers.

Select how you want capitalization handled in the combined column output:

Multi-value separation

Multi-Value Separation applies to multi-choice and multi-object fields.

Select how you want multiple values separation handled in the combined column output:

  • Default

  • Enter text; for example, enter a semi-colon followed by a space.

  • A, B, and C

  • A, B, and C

  • A, B, or C

  • A, B, or C

Date formatting

Date Formatting applies to date fields.

Select how you want the date formatted in the combined column output.

Test button

Click the TEST button to find five documents (i.e., rows) in the privilege log that meet the rule criteria. The combined column output value displays these five documents. The number found is shown if less than five documents match the criteria. If no documents match the rule criteria, the message "This rule returns zero results" displays. When test output examples are shown, hover over a field name or free text entry in the Concatenate Values above to see its corresponding outputs below underlined in yellow. This allows you to match the input above to the output below.

Create the new Combined Column

Click CREATE AND ADD LOG to create the new field and automatically add it as the last field in the current privilege log. You are then returned to the privilege log. Alternatively, click CREATE to create the new field without adding it to the current privilege log. 

Calculating Combined Columns

While a combined column is calculated, the field values are grayed out and unavailable until the calculation is finished.

This happens in three situations, the combined column is created and added to the log, the logic of a combined column is edited and updated, or the combined field is recalculated. Click Refresh Column or the log refresh button to check on the calculation progress. Once the calculation completes, the column values become visible. To see the last time a combined column was calculated, hover over the Information icon in the column name. A message appears for the date and time the combined field was last updated: "Last calculated on ___" This information can help you determine if the values in the combined field are out-of-sync with updates that happened to input fields outside of the privilege log.

Gear icon for Combined Columns

In open logs, the gear icon for combined columns has a drop-down with three options:

  • Edit: allows you to edit this column's name or underlying logic.

  • Recalculate: recalculates the values in this column.

  • Delete: deletes this columnThe gear options are not available when the log is in edit mode, finalized, or in revision.

Add Combined Column to logs

You can add this new combined field to any privilege log by opening Column Selection in the privilege log and adding this column to the log. Column values are the same for each document regardless of the column's privilege log. Notice that when you select this column, it has the custom column icon next to its name.

Edit Combined Columns

Once this custom combined column field is included in a privilege log, you can modify it by clicking the gear icon in the column heading to return to the creation page and edit the logic rule or delete the field.

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