Tip #10: 3 helpful ways to use data validation in your spreadsheet

Tip #10: 3 helpful ways to use data validation in your spreadsheet

Data validation in spreadsheets makes data entry processes more efficient, while helping reduce inconsistencies and errors in your data sets. In this article, we'll look at three ways you can use data validations to create useful dropdown lists in your spreadsheets.

Dynamic data validations

Dynamic validations help you create a new dropdown list based on an existing dropdown list or range of values. Let's say the first dropdown has the names of all the departments in your organization. You can now create a secondary dropdown list that displays designations based on the value chosen from the first dropdown!  



Dynamic data validation can be achieved using the lookup functions based on the number of criteria required. Here's a published spreadsheet for a hands-on experience!

Dropdowns with symbols  

You might need to include symbols in your spreadsheet for comprehension or visual presentation. Create a validation with a list of desired text symbols and easily access them when needed.  



Note: Only text icons can be used in data validation. There are many sites offering free text icons for easy use via copy-paste.
 

Condition-based validations

Apart from dropdowns, you can use data validation to restrict or allow data entry, and set conditions on a range based on values in other cells. This way, you can restrict edits on a range without using Lock!



Join the Zoho Sheet community and stay up to date on the latest features, interact with fellow users, and learn from the team behind Zoho Sheet. For more exciting tips, follow our  Tips and Tricks forum.

    • Sticky Posts

    • Tip #16: Ask Zia your data-related questions and get powerful insights

      Zoho Sheet provides a variety of tools and functionalities to help you analyze your data from end to end. But what if you could analyze all your data sets with a single AI-powered tool? Meet Zia, our smart virtual assistant who will answer all your data-related

    • Tip #17: Easily share spreadsheets with non-Zoho account users

      With efficient, collaboration-friendly options, Zoho Sheet is a popular choice among users. Sheet's external share links help you collaborate more effectively by sharing your spreadsheets with anyone outside your organization, including users who do not

    • Tip #7: Four things you didn't know you can do with Conditional Formatting

      Conditional formatting helps you highlight and visualize data in your spreadsheet based on provided rules. Zoho Sheet offers three types of conditional formatting: Classic, Color Scales, and Icon Sets. If you're already familiar with how Conditional Formatting works, here are some bonus tips for Classic formats: Customize rules with formulas Zoho Sheet allows you to create personalized rules based on formulas. For example, in a task list you can use customized formulas to highlight tasks which are

    • Tip #15: Stop guessing and start estimating with Zoho Sheet's Goal Seek

      Goal Seek is an ideal spreadsheet tool for devising estimates, as it helps you retrieve your desired output value when the input values are not known. In other words, Goal Seek does back-solving to find input values once you've provided an output value.

    • Tip #10: 3 helpful ways to use data validation in your spreadsheet

      Data validation in spreadsheets makes data entry processes more efficient, while helping reduce inconsistencies and errors in your data sets. In this article, we'll look at three ways you can use data validations to create useful dropdown lists in your