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In my portal I have two lists. One (we'll call it the people-list) is a list of people's first and last names and their username (person column) if they have one.

I have created a content type that contains a lookup column that lets you choose the Last Name from the people-list, and also loads the First Name.

Now, I have a second list that uses this content type.

My problem is that I want to create a view that displays only items where the current user is equal to the username of the people-list.

But when I created the content-type (all through the web-GUI), there was no option to choose the username column. So I can't seem to get a handle on the username from the people-list, even though I do have the Last Name from that list (and the username is on that list).

How can I do this (Sharepoint Server 2010 Enterprise)?

[update]

Now, I considered using a Calculated Column with this formula:

=RIGHT([Me],LEN([Last Name])

But the problem is that since Last Name is derived from a lookkup column, I can't use it to calculate anything!

bgmCoder
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2 Answers2

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Keep the lookup column for the end user to make a choice. Create a new single line of text column and use an SP Designer workflow to format it as Last Name, First Name.

This new text column will be available to use as a filter in a view. You can also use Designer to remove the column from the form so that its only used in the background and cannot be changed by end users.

Zane d.
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  • Good idea. I've set the workflow to update "current item" being Matchfield and it inserts the value of the lookup fields as text - but when I try to add the filter for [Me] to match Matchfield - it says: "Filter value is not a valid text string" – bgmCoder Aug 06 '13 at 18:22
  • Ah, I tried [Current User] - but now I realize that first and last name may not get me their display name. So I'm stuck again. – bgmCoder Aug 06 '13 at 18:38
  • Okay, I had [me] instead of =[Me] - now the filter accepts that, but =[Me] never seems to match [Last Name],[First Name]. Any ideas? – bgmCoder Aug 06 '13 at 18:46
  • what results do you get? something like this? domain\username – Zane d. Aug 07 '13 at 19:21
  • There's no way to know what is being returned by [Me]. I started a thread here in an attempt to find that answer: http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/74470/textual-resolution-of-current-user-and-me As far as the workflow, I can get whatever I want out if it - that is, I can format the text any way I want, but I can't figure out what it is supposed to look like in order to match [Me]. – bgmCoder Aug 07 '13 at 20:22
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you would need to have some sort of source for the First Name and Last Name data. UPS is one source, but its difficult to extract exactly what you want.

the easiest, but most manual, method is to create a custom list. Create a column using the people picker to add whatever form the data comes in (example: domain\username). add columns for first name and last name using Single Line of Text.

You will have to manually populate this list with all possible people.

once that's done, you can pull the First Name and Last Name data from this list based on the value for [Me], which should equal the value displayed by the people picker column.

Zane d.
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