Differentiate dropdown multi select (without options defined) with regular text columns - smartsheet-api

Question

Is there any way to differentiate columns that are of type drop down multi select from regular text columns :
This is supposed to be a multi select drop down list without any option :
"id": 5414087443146628,
"version": 2,
"index": 2,
"title": "Column3",
"type": "TEXT_NUMBER",
"validation": false,
"width": 150
Same question goes for multi contact list without contact options defined.

Answer 1

If you think of multi-contact or multi-dropdown as new versions of the various GET requests, then its easier to return the correct values. For multi-dropdown, you use a combination of query parameters of "level=3" and "include=objectValue", then you'll see the column type change to MULTI_PICKLIST instead of TEXT. (The TEXT value is to maintain backwards compatibility.)
So, essentially, your request would look something like GET /sheets/{sheetId}?level=3&include=objectValue.

Answer 2

To test the scenario you've described, I created the following sheet structure in Smartsheet, where the column names indicate the type of each column:
Then I used Postman to issue a Get Sheet request for that sheet:
GET https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets/5831916227192708
The columns portion of the API response looks like this:
{
"id": 5831916227192708,
...
"columns": [
{
"id": 1256050323154820,
"version": 0,
"index": 0,
"title": "Description",
"type": "TEXT_NUMBER",
"primary": true,
"validation": false,
"width": 124
},
{
"id": 5759649950525316,
"version": 0,
"index": 1,
"title": "Type=Text/Number",
"type": "TEXT_NUMBER",
"validation": false,
"width": 128
},
{
"id": 1323283741206404,
"version": 0,
"index": 2,
"title": "Type=Dropdown (single select)",
"type": "PICKLIST",
"validation": false,
"width": 111
},
{
"id": 7741495861110660,
"version": 2,
"index": 3,
"title": "Type=Dropdown (multiple select)",
"type": "TEXT_NUMBER",
"validation": false,
"width": 113
},
{
"id": 3048711514285956,
"version": 0,
"index": 4,
"title": "Type=Contact List (single select)",
"type": "CONTACT_LIST",
"validation": false,
"width": 122
},
{
"id": 3992195570132868,
"version": 1,
"index": 5,
"title": "Type=Contact List (multiple select)",
"type": "TEXT_NUMBER",
"validation": false,
"width": 125
}
],
...
}
In this response, we see the following:
If column type is specified as Text/Number, the type attribute value is TEXT_NUMBER
If column type is specified as Dropdown (single select), the type attribute value is PICKLIST
If column type is specified as Dropdown (multiple select), the type attribute value is TEXT_NUMBER
If column type is specified as Contact List (single select), the type attribute value is CONTACT_LIST
If column type is specified as Contact List (multiple select), the type attribute value is TEXT_NUMBER
Therefore, it doesn't seem possible to programmatically differentiate a Dropdown (multiple select) column from a Text/Number column or a Contact List (multiple select) column from a Text/Number column, based on column metadata alone. IMO, seems like a bug for the Dropdown (multiple select) column type and Contact List (multiple select) column type to return type: TEXT_NUMBER. Perhaps someone with Smartsheet can comment here to provide more insight into this behavior.

Answer 3

Did a few tests and level 3 isn't available : https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets/{sheetId}?level=3 :
{
"errorCode": 1018,
"message": "The value '3' was not valid for the parameter 'level'.",
"refId": "1godowa5cigf1"
}
Although i tried with level 2 and got the info :
https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets/{sheetId}?level=2&include=objectValue
Results for a multi drop down list :
{
"id": 5414087443146628,
"version": 2,
"index": 2,
"title": "Column3",
"type": "MULTI_PICKLIST",
"options": [
"a",
"b"
],
"validation": false,
"width": 150
}