SharePoint 2010 - Group by two columns at once

Question

I'd like to group a view on two columns at the same time. The first column contains a serial number. The second column, Related To, is a lookup pointing to the Serial Number column. What I'm looking for is a way to group the view so that any items with EITHER a serial number or a matching value in the Related To column are grouped together within the view.

Example:

Item     Direction     SN     Related To
Hiya     Incoming      123    
This     Incoming      234
Is       Outgoing      345    123
An       Outgoing      456    234
Example  Outgoing      567    123

The result of this would be something like the following:

+ 123
    Hiya
    Is
    Example
+ 234
    This
    An

For now I'm working under the assumption that Incoming items have a serial number only, while Outgoing will have both SN and Related To filled in. I'm assuming SPD is needed to get something like this to happen. Do you have ideas on how to make this happen?

Answer 1

You are trying to condionally group by columns, that is not possible Out of the box.

Edit: For lookup columns:

I would advise you build this using JavaScript. However, if that's not an option for you, I would create a single field column (not a calculated column) and create a SPDesigner workflow that runs on edit and uses the same logic.

If you're not using lookup columns you can use the below:

1. Create a new calculated column called SnCalculated (choose whatever name you want)
2. The formula should be something like this IF([Direction] <> 'Incoming', [Related To], [SN]). This says "If direction does not equal Incoming use Related To, otherwise use Sn"
3. Group by the calculated column