restrictions on additional columns available for addition with Lookup column?

Question

Can a choice column be added as an additional field when creating a Lookup column? I was able to do this in the beta version but have been unable to in RTM. The column does not appear in the list of availabe columns to add as additional fields.

Answer 1

Hi MSNelson,

 

I am afraid that this is a known issue, our product group is aware of it and they are currently investigating the issue, but they don’t have an estimate for how long it will take.

 

Sorry for the inconvenience and many thanks for your understanding.

---

Lily Wu

Answer 2

How can I found out which types of columns are eventually going to be supported as additional fields for Lookup columns?

Answer 3

Any update on this?

Answer 4

Any updates? This is a big bummer for us.

Answer 5

Any updated on this? Is this issue been fixed? Do we have to download any hotfix or CU? Eagerly waiting for this.

          Thanks,

                 Kalagarla

Answer 6

Yes, this is a huge flaw.  An update would be appreciated.

Answer 7

Has anyone received an answer as to estimate of when this will be available? 

Still waiting!  Still very inconvenient!

An update would be appreciated!

---

Teresa

Answer 8

6 months passed by and still no new info about this issue ?

Answer 9

I believe I found a fairly simple workaround for this problem.   In the list from where the choice column is located, create a new calculated field.  In the Formula box insert the Choice field (column) you want to use as the additional field in your other list. 

Go to the list where you want to add the additional field from your Lookup.  You will see the calculated field that was created in the list of available columns.  It will have the same data as the choice field.

If anyone know of problems this might cause, please post.

---

Teresa

Answer 10

Thanks Teresa1220 for the workaround. I can't think of any problems this may cause, however, I would much rather Microsoft acknowledge an ETA of a fix for it.

Answer 11

I am definitely in agreement with you there!  Having the extra calculated columns is confusing! 

---

Teresa

Answer 12

Hi, don't think I have the same problem exactly but maybe you can help? Using SP Foundation. When adding a lookup column I get the option to add an additional column from the list of available fields from the lookup. It adds this OK is SP designer, but when I actually add an item the field is shown but not popoluted with the data from the other list. i.e if the main field is "Company" and the additional field is "Email" the item allows me to select from the dropdown and save, but when I then go to look at the item it shows the comapny name , but the email field is blank. Maybe I'm doing something stupid, but I'm losing patience with deleting and starting from scratch only to get the same results.

 

TIA

Answer 13

If it is allowing you to select, I don't know why it wouldn't be working.  We are on SharePoint Server 2010 not Foundation.  This might be the difference. 

I found this link showing some of the differences.  It might be a starting point to determine if this is the cause.  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/default.aspx

Sorry I don't have knowledge of SP Foundation.

---

Teresa

Answer 14

Lily,

Any updates on this or any recommended work-around? I've tried a lookup field to replace the choice field. It didn't work - still doesn't show up. I'm not sure if it'll work with MMD(Managed Metadata), but that's too much to go for.

Thanks.

Answer 15

If you'll look back on March 31, 2011, I posted a workaround I use for choice fields. Obviously the best solution would be to receive a fix, however, this does work and is better than nothing.

I have not seen or heard of any workaround for lookups.  My plan is to use workflow to populate another field and use it for related lists. 

Hope this helps.

 

---

Teresa

Answer 16

Thanks Teresa, Unfortunately, my list is "survey", so there is no calculated column type provided.

Answer 17

Ms. Wu:

It has been ten months since you said that your product group was investigating this issue.

What was the outcome of their investigation?

Answer 18

"This is a known issue", yet you haven't even given us so much as the courtesy of an update on it over ten months after admitting this.

Please supply the status of the "investigation" into this issue.

Thank you.

Answer 19

I'm not that familiar with the forum, but wonder if we aren't getting any more responses from MS because this is marked as "answered"?  

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Teresa

Answer 20

Clearly this is Microsoft treatment for Foundation users.

IF the comparison chart said Foundation would be SEVERLEY limited, and completley out of sync with the documented specifications, then I would not have bothered investing my time.

 

Answer 21

Teresa, I couldnt get that workaround to work with Multi-choice choice column

:/

This is ridiculous! :(

Answer 22

Over one year now and absolutely no follow-up whatsoever on the supposed "investigation" into this "known issue". This is terribly disrespectful on the part of Microsoft.

Ms. Wu, you have been active on these boards as recently as a few hours ago. Please do not igore the questions posed here.

Thank you.

 

 

Answer 23

Podraig, the workaround is very limited as to where it can be used.  I haven't found any other "out of the box" solution. 

 

We really need a fix from MS for this issue.  I agree this is ridiculous!

 

---

Teresa

Answer 24

Yes but it works in paid editions, so you pretty have your answer right there

 

Nice to know I'm not the only one though :)

Answer 25

Clearly this is Microsoft treatment for Foundation users.

IF the comparison chart said Foundation would be SEVERLEY limited, and completley out of sync with the documented specifications, then I would not have bothered investing my time.

 

We have the same issue with the paid version of SharePoint.

Answer 26

You can keep your thanks for our understanding; I doubt anyone understands a complete lack of progress or even information after fourteen months.

What is the status of this "investigation"?

Answer 27

What's the status of this - over one year since any response from you about the supposed product group investigation?? I am having issues with the "paid" version of SharePoint 2010 SP1 my company is using. Fields of type"Multiple lines of text" is not showing up as an option in the "Add a column to show each of these additional fields" choices.

The Calculated field work around doesn't work in this case.

The other work around I can think of involves coding, but this shouldn't be necessary for something that should work.

The answer provided in the thread http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepoint2010general/thread/726d13b7-5dc1-4880-ab06-e9c4cb61ebc2 is clearly wrong.

Answer 28

Any word if Microsoft has plans to address this issue? The lookup type is very limited. When you try to Insert a Related list in the Relationships menu, it will only project primitive types: text, number and date. No projection for choice, person ..... This feature has potential but very limited at its current state. Hoping for a fix soon.

Answer 29

According to this documentation, multiple lines of text, choice, and yes/no columns can be used for lookups:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/create-list-relationships-by-using-unique-and-lookup-columns-HA101729901.aspx

Since this doesn't seem to actually be the case, this should be considered a bug. How does one submit a bug report? Maybe the 1-1/4-year-long "investigation" has turned up something by now.

Answer 30

Well, it's been a year and a half now since Microsoft admitted that this was a bug and launched its "investigation". And just as long since any information has been offered to all who are waiting for for it.

 

Great service!

Answer 31

To Margriet Bruggeman:

Please don't mark as answers posts that are not answers. if you'd bothered to actually read the thread, you would have known that the post you marked as an answer isn't one at all, but apparently you couldn't take the five minutes to give users here that courtesy. Please un-mark the post as an answer, and while we have you, please give us an update on the status of the investigation that Lily Wu posted about in August of 2010.

Answer 32

Hi MSNelson,

I am afraid that this is a known issue, our product group is aware of it and they are currently investigating the issue, but they don’t have an estimate for how long it will take.

Sorry for the inconvenience and many thanks for your understanding.

---

Lily Wu

Are you competing in some sort of internal competition at Microsoft for the longest period between acknowledging a problem and announcing an investigation and then actually reporting any results of that investigation? I would think that at two years and counting, you must at least be in the semi-finals, no?

Answer 33

Any update?

The document says Multiple line of text type is supported. But i do not get to see them.

Answer 34

Here is a workaround utilizing SharePoint Designer workflows:
http://rrfreeman.blogspot.com/2013/05/projected-lookup-field-lookup-column.html

---

RobertRFreeman

Answer 35

There will be no "fix" now. The official documentation has now changed and very little can actually be used as the source for a lookup field now OOTB

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/create-list-relationships-by-using-unique-and-lookup-columns-HA101729901.aspx#_Toc270607415

The following table summarizes what column types can and cannot be used to create lookup columns.

Supported Column Types	Unsupported Column Types
Single line of text	Currency
Number	Lookup
Date and Time	Person or Group
	Calculated
	Hyperlink or Picture
	Multiple lines of text
	Yes/No
	Choice
	Custom Columns

Answer 36

There will be no "fix" now. The official documentation has now changed and very little can actually be used as the source for a lookup field now OOTB

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/create-list-relationships-by-using-unique-and-lookup-columns-HA101729901.aspx#_Toc270607415

The following table summarizes what column types can and cannot be used to create lookup columns.

Supported Column Types	Unsupported Column Types
Single line of text	Currency
Number	Lookup
Date and Time	Person or Group
	Calculated
	Hyperlink or Picture
	Multiple lines of text
	Yes/No
	Choice
	Custom Columns

I believe the issue was with the column types that could be added as additional columns when adding a lookup column, not with the column types that could be the lookup column.

Answer 37

well that was a waste of  3 years 1 month 20.9 days

Answer 38

Ha ha

I was following this thread 3 years ago when I was setting up the most incredibly simple sharepoint list, all I wanted was some drop down fields sourced from another one-column list.

I would never recomend Sharepoint to anyone.

Answer 39

Wow I am just now trying to get this to work. I can see it's never going to get fixed. This sucks.

Answer 40

Wow I am just now trying to get this to work. I can see it's never going to get fixed. This sucks.

Geez, have a little patience. It's only been a half-decade since Microsoft's Lily Wu wrote,

"I am afraid that this is a known issue, our product group is aware of it and they are currently investigating the issue"

Maybe she left years ago and forgot to hand this issue off. Oh, wait, she was active here two weeks ago.

Hey Lily, how about you pop in here with an update? Thanks!

Answer 41

Hi MSNelson,

 

I am afraid that this is a known issue, our product group is aware of it and they are currently investigating the issue, but they don’t have an estimate for how long it will take.

 

Sorry for the inconvenience and many thanks for your understanding.

---

Lily Wu

Hi Lily,

Could you please provide an update on the status of this known issue that you acknowledged? If you are no longer associated with the product group that is aware of and investigating this issue, would you please at least identify a current member of that product group, and ideally convince them to post an update here, if you do not have one?

At 5½ years, this has got to be holding some kind of record for the longest-running "known issue"!

Answer 42

surprised to see this issue still exists in SharePoint 2013 and not been addressed yet.

---

sanmm

Answer 43

If this ever gets fixed, I would like the following field types to be allowed as an "additional field"

Multiple lines of text
Choice
Lookup
Person or group

FYI, I am on Office365

Thanks,

Stephane

---

Stephane

Answer 44

Just be patient; it was only a little over six years ago that Lily Wu of Microsoft wrote,

"I am afraid that this is a known issue, our product group is aware of it and they are currently investigating the issue"

The investigation has, so far, taken over six times as long as the Warren Commission's that investigated the assassination of JFK.

Give it time.

Answer 45

Researching if I can do the multiple lines of text as an additional field and came across this whole article.

This is the most comical thread I have seen in awhile!!

Simple answer - Not a bug, nothing to fix, it is the way it works, if the column type is not available for the lookup, it is not available for the display additional.

Have to thank all that posted the comical parts  :)

Answer 46

@Lily Wu

Is it still a known issue or it just went "unknown"? :)

Answer 47

The issue still persist. 

Content Type or Lists Lookup Column can't show additional fields which are Choice or lookup columns.

@support, please help....

Answer 48

People are so impatient; it's only been a little over eight years ago that Lily Wu said, "I am afraid that this is a known issue, our product group is aware of it and they are currently investigating the issue."

Makes you wonder how some people sleep at night, eh?

Answer 49

It is still an issue in 2020!  A job that in SQL would have taken five minutes has taken hours and still not resolved.  Why can't SharePoint lists behave like SQL and allow one, having looked up from one list to another, display any column in the other list?  Looking at this thread, the issue has been open for years and years.

Answer 50

Hi MSNelson,

 

I am afraid that this is a known issue, our product group is aware of it and they are currently investigating the issue, but they don’t have an estimate for how long it will take.

 

Sorry for the inconvenience and many thanks for your understanding.

---

Lily Wu

Hi Lily. This problem is getting ready to enter middle school.

I was wondering if your product group that is investigating this "known issue" needs another decade to investigate.

Looking forward to your reply.