Role of "Title" Column in SharePoint Lists - Can't change column type?

[slohombre]

When I start a new list in Sharepoint, I always get a "Title" column and I can't change the type from the default "Text" type. What is the role of the "Title" column? I'd like my first column to be a date column but can't seem to figure out how to make that happen.

Thanks for any help.

[#2]

It's a system column and the type cannot be changed

[#3]

@Juan Carlos González Martín  Thank you. So how do most people deal with it? Ignore it?

[#4]

@slohombre you can ignore it, rename it to something else where you want a single of text column, just not change the type as @Juan Carlos González Martín said.

Rob
Los Gallardos
Microsoft Power Automate Community Super User

[#5]

@slohombre 

This is a default column in SharePoint lists which comes with the Item content type. You cannot change it's data type. As @RobElliott said, if you need any other text column in your list then you can rename Title column and use it for that.

You can change the order of columns in list view and list form to show the date column as first column.

Also, if you don't want this field in your list then you can hide it from list form as well as from list view.

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[#6]

Hello @ganeshsanap,

Do you know if it is possible, somehow, to enforce unique values in this default column? I have been using it to assign unique ticket numbers for each issue that comes my way. Since I have many, many items in this list, it is tedious and prone to human error to make sure I don't assign the item an already used number. I can't see how to do this since there is no Edit option for the default column.

Thank you!

[#7]

@lriscald go to List Settings and you can enforce unique values for any column there:

But there's another approach you might want to consider. In our IT Ticket system we use the ID column. The ID number is set by SharePoint so you don't have to do it manually, it can't be changed  and is always unique. And that is the number that is used as the ticket number throughout the system, for example when the user initially submits the ticket the list item is created and an email is sent back to the user by a flow in Power Automate with the details of what they submitted and their unique ticket number. And it's used in all other communications about the ticket as well.

Rob
Los Gallardos
Microsoft Power Automate Community Super User

[#8]

Thank you so much, @RobElliott.

When I was first creating this list, I did explore the ID column and thought it might be useful that way, but one thing threw me off. At that time, I think I had about three items on the list and the IDs that came up were something like 3, 31, 32. In other words, they didn't seem to be numbered consecutively. It is possible, in creating my list, that I had created and deleted some items as I was experimenting and I imagine that once an ID is used, it never gets reused, but I certainly hadn't created and deleted 30-some items. Do you have any idea how these IDs are generated?

Despite the numbering strangeness, your suggestion is a great one and that may be what I will do.

Thank you!

[#9]

@lriscald IDs are always created sequentially and are never re-used, even when items are deleted. 

Rob
Los Gallardos

[#10]

Thank you!

[#11]

One thing to keep in mind about the title column: If you delete a list item - this is the only information you see in the Recycle Bin. So it can be important to put information here that helps identify the item if you need to recover something you have deleted.

I often customise my list with a power app form and I have the Title field automatically populated with info concatenated from other fields.

[#12]

@Fleur Williamson how do you auto-format your list like this? can you give information?

[#13]

@isa_osman When I customize the List form using PowerApps, I then set the default value of the Title datacard to a formula that pulls information from the other fields.

Eg: To show the app name and date:
"[application name] - " & Now()
You could include the ID field - but that wouldn't update until the second save as it doesn't yet exist until saved.

[#14]

@Fleur Williamson 

Is there a way to change what column is the "Title" role?

Issue is that I want to create some conditional formatting using the column that is marked as the "Title" column and it will not allow me to.

When I try to select the column I want to apply the conditional formatting to the "Title" row is missing or hidden.

[#15]

Is there a way to make this column (Title Column) calculated based off of other fields in the list?

My use case is the title column would be full name and I have 2 other text columns called First Name and last Name.

The same formula that works in a calculated column is throwing an error when trying to use the Calculated Value.

Thanks

[#16]

@Todd Lane you can't change the column type to be a calculated column. But if you change the form settings so that you are using a Power Apps customised form you can get the Title column automatically populated with the data in the FirstName and LastName columns.

I've changed the names of the FirstName and LastName controls in the form to dataFirstname and dataLastname. Then in the Title control I've set the default property to
dataFirstname.Text&" "&dataLastname.Text

When you save the form it will automatically save the Title column as well with the firstname and lastname.

Rob
Los Gallardos
Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)

[#17]

@Fleur Williamson do you have a short video on this. :)