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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.”
Chart aggregation engines treat merged fields as atomic string values because they can’t understand that concatenated text represents multiple discrete components.
Here’s why this happens and how to work around Salesforce’s limitation to get the component-level counting you need.
Database systems process concatenated data as single strings
When Salesforce encounters “Value A; Value B; Value C”, it processes this as one unique text string, not three separate countable items. This stems from how database systems store and query concatenated data – they lack built-in logic to parse delimited strings during aggregation operations.
How to make it work
Step 1. Extract your Salesforce data into Google Sheets.
Use Coefficient to import your Salesforce reports or objects containing merged fields. This gives you access to advanced text parsing capabilities that Salesforce’s native reporting can’t provide.
Step 2. Create parallel columns for component parsing.
Keep your original concatenated fields for display purposes, then add new columns that parse individual components usingand related functions. This preserves your data structure while enabling component-level analysis.
Step 3. Build charts using the parsed components.
Create your visualizations using the separated component data instead of the original merged fields. This lets you aggregate individual components while maintaining the original concatenated view for reference.
Step 4. Set up automatic updates.
Enable Coefficient’s scheduling features to refresh both your original merged fields and parsed components automatically. Your charts will stay current as Salesforce data changes.
Get the component analysis you need
This approach overcomes the fundamental database limitation where merged fields can’t be disaggregated during chart creation. Start with Coefficient to unlock component-level insights from your Salesforce merged field data.
