# Action Set column true or 1 **URL:** \ **Category:** Ask for Help\ **Tags:** actions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2020, 4:44am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470 "2020-11-16T04:44:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mns\_Glide](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mns_glide/32/2514_2.png) [@Mns\_Glide](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mns_Glide)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 4:44am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/1 "2020-11-16T04:44:37Z")
Hi, I am trying to create the following actions for a button for user to indicate their “attendance” to an event. When user clicks on button 1. their information is captured to a “response sheet” by adding a row. this works fine. 2. the second action is set column (which is actually set cell). i want to set a boolean to a cell to “True” or “1” but kind of stuck on how to get it done as options available are all related to the columns in the sheet only. Once I set this cell, I will see it for other purposes such as “sorting” or “visibility”. Suggestions please. ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 5:19am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/2 "2020-11-16T05:19:54Z")
Create a template column with value True and set the column you need to that template column. ---
**Author:** ![Manan\_Mehta](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/manan_mehta/32/13957_2.png) [@Manan\_Mehta](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Manan_Mehta)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 5:22am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/3 "2020-11-16T05:22:35Z")
Can also use the increment action with increment = 1 ---
**Author:** ![Mns\_Glide](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mns_glide/32/2514_2.png) [@Mns\_Glide](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mns_Glide)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 6:10am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/4 "2020-11-16T06:10:29Z")
ok, set column works fine with ideas from Thinh and Manan…what I am attempting to do is use this Boolean cell to setup visibility condition. That means if button is click, the user have registered and the cell, we call “bookmark”, is pulled to “true”. what i noticed is this switch is user specific. So if it is manually pulled by the user, then the visibility conditions work. But if we use the “set column” method, visibility condition does not work. It is somehow related to user specific columns… Further suggestions much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 7:38am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/5 "2020-11-16T07:38:40Z")
Can you describe more about the visibility conditions you want after this? ---
**Author:** ![invinpro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/invinpro/32/16462_2.png) [@invinpro](https://community.glideapps.com/u/invinpro)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 8:55am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/6 "2020-11-16T08:55:21Z")
I had the same situation over the weekend with the set column. For some reason the set column didn’t like setting from “true”, but it does seem to work if you use the set column to copy another boolean column that is already ticked. ---
**Author:** ![fabio](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/fabio/32/16336_2.png) [@fabio](https://community.glideapps.com/u/fabio)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 10:07am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/7 "2020-12-26T10:07:23Z")
I have the same “issue” that with set columns action “true” seems to be considered a text word like any other word instead of a Boolean value. The copy of the value suggested seems to me more a workaround than a solution. Would it be possible to understand if there is a way to give the Boolean value correctly without adding a column? Thanks, Bye bye!! ---
**Author:** ![Manan\_Mehta](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/manan_mehta/32/13957_2.png) [@Manan\_Mehta](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Manan_Mehta)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 10:48am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/8 "2020-12-26T10:48:58Z")
Have your tried “True” with T capital or “TRUE” with everything capital? I think both of these work fine. ---
**Author:** ![Robert\_Petitto](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/robert_petitto/32/25193_2.png) [@Robert\_Petitto](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Robert_Petitto)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/9 "2020-12-26T13:33:44Z")
I’ve successfully changed a Boolean column using the set column action with the custom value `true` ---
**Author:** ![kyleheney](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/kyleheney/32/41173_2.png) [@kyleheney](https://community.glideapps.com/u/kyleheney)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 1:39pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/10 "2020-12-26T13:39:38Z")
I’ve run into issues where I have an IFTHEN that is looking at a Boolean value. I can’t remember for sure how it messed up, but I think the action was setting a Boolean to “1” , then I had an IFTHEN checking if the column was “true”. It didn’t work until I changed the IFTHEN to check for “1” as the value of the Boolean. In other cases I can think of in Glide, true and 1 were seen the same in an IFTHEN… but when the 1 is set by an action, that doesn’t seem to be the case. ---
**Author:** ![Lars](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/lars/32/19223_2.png) [@Lars](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Lars)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 7:55pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/11 "2021-01-04T19:55:47Z")
I agree with fabio - there is definitely something fishy going on when you set a value in a Boolean column in a set columns action. And it doesn’t matter whether you write “1”, “true”, “TRUE”, “True” or any other reasonable value. The problem is that the value is stored as text. But it is very hard to figure out, as it seems like Glide to some extent cope correctly with the text value. It is even presented correctly in a Boolean column (see picture below): ![Problems with booleans in Glide](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/c/0/c0db3ef85dccd1f844174a615f1d55f591c8d7e4.png) However, Sheets is not fooled. If you try to treat the corresponding cells in Sheets as Boolean values it will not work, because Sheets recognize it as text - it turns out that the cell actually contains 'TRUE and not TRUE, i.e. Sheets see it as text. Consequently, you can’t expect that you can use any kind of logic in Sheets correctly on these values - unless you know what is going on. Why Glide works like that I have no clue. But it is extremely tricky to figure out why your app doesn’t work when you try to set a Boolean value in a set columns action. My workaround has been to change the Boolean column to a text column and then fill it “Yes” and “No” values instead. Then I’m not in doubt, that it is actually a text value. But, of course, if you need to set values in the same column in a checkbox component too that workaround will not work. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 2:33am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/12 "2021-01-05T02:33:01Z")
> [@Lars](#): > > However, Sheets is not fooled. If you try to treat the corresponding cells in Sheets as Boolean values it will not work, because Sheets recognize it as text - it turns out that the cell actually contains 'TRUE and not TRUE, i.e. Sheets see it as text. One thing that I have found is that if you go to the Glide Data Editor and click on the checkbox twice (ie. toggle it between true/false and back again), when it subsequently syncs with the Google Sheet, the value will be correctly reflected as TRUE/FALSE (boolean rather than text). However, that isn’t really much use, because if you toggle these boolean values using the app, then they immediately revert to text in the Google Sheet. I’d say it’s a bug. ---
**Author:** ![fabio](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/fabio/32/16336_2.png) [@fabio](https://community.glideapps.com/u/fabio)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/13 "2021-03-02T15:44:39Z")
Dear @Darren_Murphy Do you know if there any news about this 'true / true issue? I still have the problem, no matter what I write between True/TRUE/true… Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Mishta\_P](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mishta_p/32/16900_2.png) [@Mishta\_P](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mishta_P)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/14 "2021-03-02T16:21:38Z")
I had this earlier today. Up until around lunchtime today I always used TRUE, this has never caused my an issue until I tried a relation lookup on it. The Glide Data seems to set a Boolean as “true”. > [@Returning highest/lowest value from filtered list](https://community.glideapps.com/t/returning-highest-lowest-value-from-filtered-list/23646): > > I am trying to pick out the lowest time (column 2 or 3) that is TRUE in column 1. I can use a rollup to get 15 or 120 easily. I used an IF THEN ELSE to bring out the 2 values selected but rollup only allows count/count unique, the same is true if I “convert” the values with a Maths or a Template column. This was the problem, and the solution (which worked fully when I set my custom action to true/false instead of TRUE/FALSE.) ---
**Author:** ![rickc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/rickc/32/25824_2.png) [@rickc](https://community.glideapps.com/u/rickc)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/15 "2022-08-29T21:00:10Z")
Apologies for bringing up an old post but does this still require a workaround? I have a custom action and trying to use Set Columns to set a boolean column to true or false. Glide is still sending it to google as 'true, 'True, or 'TRUE. I’ve tried automatically setting the new row to have a checkbox validation after it’s submitted but the validation fails due to the apostrophe. Is there any update for this issue I’m missing? ---
**Author:** ![gvalero](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/gvalero/32/1037_2.png) [@gvalero](https://community.glideapps.com/u/gvalero)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 12:31am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/16 "2022-08-30T00:31:56Z")
Hola, Try creating a new column using a boolean type from Glide, this will avoid sending text as 'true, 'True, or 'TRUE to your GS. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/9/9/99620abb1ab5376869d23a3523f40f2fc6f23856.png) ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 12:34am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/17 "2022-08-30T00:34:52Z")
Does it only work if you click on the checkbox in the data view? I tried doing it with set column and it doesn’t make any difference. Since checkboxes are a bit special with Google Sheets as it’s seen as “data validation”, there has to be an additional step when you do it with an API call (basically telling Google that I’m adding this boolean value and please add a boolean data validation for me). Not sure if “set column” actions are handling that. ---
**Author:** ![gvalero](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/gvalero/32/1037_2.png) [@gvalero](https://community.glideapps.com/u/gvalero)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 12:40am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/18 "2022-08-30T00:40:08Z")
> [@ThinhDinh](#): > > I tried doing it with set column and it doesn’t make any difference. Ah, let me try using a Set Column action… I’ll be back! From GDE, all this works perfectly ---
**Author:** ![rickc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/rickc/32/25824_2.png) [@rickc](https://community.glideapps.com/u/rickc)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 2:09am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/19 "2022-08-30T02:09:46Z")
> [@ThinhDinh](#): > > Does it only work if you click on the checkbox in the data view? I tried doing it with set column and it doesn’t make any difference. My boolean column was created in Glide and being set by a custom action with Set Column Values. If you click the checkbox in the data view it then shows up in the google sheet as a checkbox (and has TRUE as the value - no apostrophe). ---
**Author:** ![rickc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/rickc/32/25824_2.png) [@rickc](https://community.glideapps.com/u/rickc)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 1:14pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-column-true-or-1/18470/20 "2022-08-30T13:14:11Z")
At least this workaround is still working. > [@Action "Set columns" won't set boolean but strings as\['TRUE \] \['FALSE \]](https://community.glideapps.com/t/action-set-columns-wont-set-boolean-but-strings-as-true-false/24252/11): > > So this is obviously a bug and the workaround is cumbersome, but at least works (thanks @Manan_Mehta ) Create a boolean value somewhere for both TRUE and FALSE: [image] Go to the same table you’d want to write boolean values to by a ‘Set columns’ action and create a Singe value column pulling in the boolean value: [image] Then assign these instead of typing (TRUE or true, doesn’t matter, it would pass it onto sheets with an apostrophe angry): My suggestion for a fix would be: …