In Spreadsheet.com, indenting and outdenting rows allows you to create hierarchical relationships between rows.

More than just a visual indicator, indenting and outdenting turns rows into "parents" with "children." Sometimes called "grouping", indenting and outdenting rows combines groups with tabs to create hierarchical relationships that persist across Views. For instance, in Kanban Views you can sort by level, showing all rows, just parent rows, or only rows at a specific level in the hierarchy. In addition, there are unique Hierarchy Formulas that allow you to reference child data in the hierarchy.

Hierarchies are useful when you have rows of data that are related to each other, like denoting subtasks in a project plan or budget line items that roll-up to subtotals.

Introduction to Row Hierarchies

In Spreadsheet.com, rows can be indented and thereby become "children" to their "parent" row. This ability has multiple names, including row hierarchies, "tabbing" or "indenting" rows, and grouping rows.

The top-level of a hierarchy is generally referred to as the "parent" row or a "Level 1" row. Rows one indent lower are known as "child" or a "Level 2" rows. Two indents in are "grandchild" or "Level 3" rows, etc. 

Hierarchies allow you to group rows together in parent or child relationships that can then be collapsed to ride the rows. Hierarchies also change the way that your worksheet sorts data, with sorts only applying to the children within each parent row. That way different children do not get sorted between different parents.

To indent a row, you must have an editor role or higher. You can only indent entries in the primary column and cannot indent the first row.

Indenting and Outdenting Rows

By indenting a row, it becomes a "child" row to the "parent" above it. To indent or outdent a row, click the row action button to the left of the row index and select the desired option from the dropdown.

You can also access indent and outdent options from the toolbar.

For more details about working with row hierarchies and hierarchy functions, see our article on Creating Row Hierarchies.