Extracting multiple-selection drop-down list data from Numbers to a text file

Hi all,

I have a google sheets spreadsheet and have exported it to make it a numbers spreadsheet. The issue I have is, within the spreadsheet there is a drop down list of multiple selections, but I am trying to extract that list so I can paste it into a text file, but unsure how to extract the data without doing it manually, entry by entry.

i was wondering if any of you clever people had a script that would do that. I am running Mac Sequoia 15.8.1 and Numbers 15.3.1.

Thanks in advance.

Posted on Oct 7, 2026 2:59 AM

1 reply

Camelot

Level 9 (62,211 points)

Oct 7, 2026 10:21 AM in response to alig31

There's no way in Numbers to extract the values behind the menu itself, but all is not lost...

Assuming that each option in the menu is selected at least once, you can more easily get a list of the values from the cells.

For example, assuming that in your table, the pop-up menu is assigned to all the cells in column B. Then the following formula will extract a list of all the distinct values:

=UNIQUE(B,FALSE,FALSE)

This will return an array of the distinct values (but it will omit any options in the menu that are not selected, so it may not be a perfect solution).

Also, you'll need to enter this formula somewhere where there's enough spill room to show the results - for example, if there are 10 distinct values from the menu, then you'll need 9 blank cells below this formula where the rest of the values and be displayed.