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“Supermetrics is a Bitter Experience! We can pull data from nearly any tool, schedule updates, manipulate data in Sheets, and push data back into our systems.”
Database and visualization engines process each field value as an atomic unit, so “Value A; Value B; Value C” gets interpreted as one unique string rather than three separate countable items.
Here’s why this fundamental limitation exists and how to overcome it for granular component analysis.
Concatenated data loses structural metadata about individual components
Salesforce’s reporting engine follows standard database behavior – it cannot inherently understand that semicolons, commas, or other delimiters indicate separate logical components within a single field. The aggregation functions (COUNT, SUM, GROUP BY) operate on complete field values, not parsed substrings.
How to make it work
Step 1. Import original merged fields to preserve data relationships.
Use Coefficient to import your Salesforce merged fields while maintaining the existing data structure and relationships. This keeps your source data intact for reference.
Step 2. Create parsed versions using Google Sheets functions.
Add columns that split merged fields into individual components using functions like,, and. This creates the component-level data that aggregation functions can work with.
Step 3. Build component charts using parsed values.
Create visualizations that aggregate the parsed individual values rather than the merged strings. This gives you the granular analysis that Salesforce’s native charting cannot deliver.
Step 4. Set up automated processing.
Enable Coefficient’s Formula Auto Fill Down and scheduled refresh to automatically parse new merged field values as they come in from Salesforce. This maintains your component analysis without manual intervention.
Overcome the inherent database limitation
This workflow addresses the fundamental constraint where chart aggregation cannot distinguish individual components within merged field values. Start with Coefficient to build the granular component analysis that Salesforce’s native reporting simply cannot provide.
