ExtendInsights stores NetSuite picklist values (Customer, Item, Account, Location, etc.) in a single cell using a “display value” plus a bracketed internal ID (for example: Boston[[123]]).
This is helpful for uploads, but it can be noisy when building pivot tables, charts, or reports.
This guide shows a simple Excel formula approach to strip the [[nnnn]] portion while keeping the readable value.
Before You Start
This is only for reporting. Do not remove the
[[internalID]]values in the actual mapped picklist column if you still plan to upload updates.Do not edit Row 1 (the hidden mapping row) in your ExtendInsights table.
Option 1 (Recommended): Extract the display value into a new column
Step 1: Load your template
Open your ExtendInsights template in Excel.
Step 2: Download the records
Use Reload (or Download) to pull data into the table so the picklist values populate.
Step 3: Insert a helper column
Insert a new column anywhere after Column B, and:
Leave Row 1 blank
Rename Row 2 to something like
Item (Display)orCustomer (Display)
Step 4: Use a formula to remove the bracketed internal ID
Assuming the picklist value is in A2, use:
=IFERROR(TRIM(LEFT(A2, FIND("[[", A2)-1)), A2)
What this does:
If the cell contains
[[, it keeps everything before it.If the cell does not contain
[[, it returns the original value unchanged.
Step 5: Use the new column for pivot tables and reporting
Build your pivots and charts using the helper column (display-only) instead of the original picklist field column.
Option 2: Keep only the internal ID (when needed for analysis)
If you want to extract the internal ID for lookups or joins, use:
=IFERROR(TEXTBEFORE(TEXTAFTER(A2,"[["),"]]"),"")
If your Excel version doesn’t support TEXTBEFORE/TEXTAFTER, tell me what Excel version you’re targeting, and I’ll provide a compatible formula.
💡 Pro tip
Create/record a macro that you can run on demand that inserts the column and then inserts the formula as well.
Moving forward, running the macro will be super fast.
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