Numbers - Printing Table Formatting Help?

Question

For the past few months, I've been transitioning my MS Office Access databases over to Numbers on my new MBPro - one database is 'Wine Recommendations' which I keep tract of possible purchases from several publications that I receive - the attached screen capture shows the top first page converted into Numbers.
In Access, I was able to eliminate 'duplicate' printing of the same entries in the columns desired, e.g. under 'Origin', the first Au-NZ printed but not the same following ones; in 'Type' the grapes first appearance would print but not the identical names below (same for the 'Year'). I've figured out out to do repetitive sorts on those 3 columns, but cannot find a way to eliminate 'duplicate' printing of the same entries.
So, is this possible in Numbers? Thanks for comments & suggestions. Dave

Answer 1

Hi Dave,
A fellow Access user (refugee?) in these parts!  Filemaker is good for this, of course. But here is quite an easy spreadsheet hack to achieve the effect. No fiddling with database report writing or grappling with advanced functions in reference manuals. I've used this in Excel and it ports quite well to Numbers.
The basic idea: Insert "display" columns to the left of your original data, each filled with a simple formula that shows "a blank" if it sees a "duplicate" or the value if it's a "new" value. When you want to view or print your data just "hide" the original columns with repeating values that you want to suppress. When you need your "full table" back (to sort, filter, whatever) unhide those original columns.
Here you need three new columns and a short formula in each. That's about it.
First, insert three columns to the left of your original data.
Then add the three formulas. I'll start with the formula in column B, because it's the basic "duplicate" killer.
In B4 enter this formula, filled down:
=IF(E4=E3,"",E4)
All this does is show a "blank" if it sees that the value in this row of column E (Type) is the same as the value on the previous row (i.e. it's a "duplicate"). Otherwise it shows the value it finds in column E.
In column A4 enter this formula, filled down:
=IF(B4<>"",D4,"")
This shows what's in column D if there is something in column B; otherwise it shows a "blank"...This seems to be what you wanted in your example. If you want Origin to show only once then you would have =IF(D4=D3,"",D4), exactly the same pattern as in B.
And in C3 insert a slightly more complicated formula, filled down:
=IF(AND(F4=F3,B4=""),"",F4)
This shows a "blank" if the value in column F (Year) is the same as in the previous row AND there is nothing in column B. Otherwise it shows the value it finds in column F on that row.
Now, when you want to print or view your data, just hide columns D, E, and F.
If you've got lots rows to view on screen, you may want to freeze the header rows.
Unhide the columns when you need the "full table" to sort/resort, etc.
You can sort, etc. in the Reorganize Panel:
Final notes:
-- Numbers (unlike Excel) sometimes "scrambles" the formula row references after sorting/resorting. If that happens, just copy/paste A4:C4 from a backup table into row 4 and fill down and all will be well again.
-- And probably best not to used merged cells, even in the header. Merged cells look nice, but cause unexpected problems.
Not fancy. Probably more elegant ways. But it gets the job done in a spreadsheet without much fuss.
SG