SharePoint: Import Spreadsheet – Which column is the edit column?

 

Why does Import Speadsheet pick column “A” as the edit column?

 

I saw something odd in an import recently where the import picked a column way out to the right of the list. So I put together a test with columns in all different orders, and one that only had numeric columns.

 

 

Import #1 – second column used as the edit column

 

Import #2 – fourth column used as the edit column

 

Import #3 – first column used as the edit column

 

Import #4 – no imported column used! New one added!

 

 

So the answer is…

 

SharePoint uses the first “text” column it finds, and if it can’t find one, it creates one!

I opened each of the views above in SharePoint Designer, and found the the Edit Menu column in each one has an internal name of LinkTitle.

.