Confusion in exported data for Sprint values

[Mahanth Prudhvi P]

HI,

When I export the Jira tickets into excel and if the tickets travel through multiple Sprints the exported data will have multiple sprint values in a single cell(something like this "Sprint BYG;Sprint HGB;Sprint JNH;Sprint MSB;Sprint SHG"  where each sprint value is seperated by " ; ". Sometimes the oldest sprint value will be given first( Sprint Old; SPrint A; Sprint B; Sprint New) sometimes it will be reverse (Sprint New;SPrint A; Sprint B; Sprint Old). May I know how these values are ordered. It helps us to make some reports by using formulas in google sheets by eleminating the old sprint values and here the confusion is to tell the system to find the current Sprint value.

Thanks!

Mahanth

[Lukas Maczejka _Appfire_]

Hi @Mahanth Prudhvi P,

The sprint ordering in the export doesn't seem to be officially documented by Atlassian, so there is no safe formula you can build on top of it. @Germán Morales _ Hiera is right that relying on first or last position will eventually break.

The most reliable native approach is to segment your exports by sprint state using JQL before exporting, rather than trying to classify in the spreadsheet afterwards:

• Active sprint issues: project = YOUR_PROJECT AND sprint in openSprints()
• Planned/future sprint issues: project = YOUR_PROJECT AND sprint in futureSprints()
• Completed sprint issues: project = YOUR_PROJECT AND sprint in closedSprints()

Each export then represents a clean category and your Google Sheets formulas can work from a "which file is this?" column rather than parsing a semicolon-delimited cell. You could also combine them in one export and add a helper column manually to mark the category.

Cheers, Lukas

[Lukas Maczejka _Appfire_]

That said - if you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, JXL for Jira sidesteps the export problem entirely. Its sprint smart column computes whether each issue's sprint is active, future, or closed directly in the sheet — no export and no formula parsing needed. You can filter, sort, and group by sprint state in one view.

Disclosure: I'm work for the team that builds JXL.

Cheers, Lukas

[Germán Morales _ Hiera]

I would be careful relying on the order of Sprint values in the exported cell. A work item can move through multiple sprints, and the export is not a great source of truth for “current sprint” logic in a spreadsheet.

If you need reporting in Google Sheets, I would avoid parsing the first or last sprint from that semicolon-separated value. Safer options are:

- use JQL to export only issues in openSprints()
- add a helper field or automation that stores the current sprint name/id when the issue enters a sprint
- use the Jira API if you need sprint state, because the Sprint field includes richer sprint metadata than the flat CSV/XLSX export

The export is useful for history, but fragile for formulas that need to identify the active sprint.

[Mahanth Prudhvi P]

Hi @Germán Morales _ Hiera 

Thank you for the suggestion. In my case, I am mainly looking at issues in future/planned sprints. Also, we currently have a cap on the automation limit due to the Standard version, so I was exploring ways to identify the current sprint value in the exported data for Excel-based reporting and formulas.

[Germán Morales _ Hiera]

Hi @Mahanth Prudhvi P ,

If your main problem is future/planned sprints, I would not try to infer the current sprint from the order of values in the exported Sprint cell. That order is not a reliable business rule.

For Jira Standard, the safest no-automation workaround is to split the export by JQL before exporting:

- Current sprint issues:
sprint in openSprints()

- Future/planned sprint issues:
sprint in futureSprints()

- Closed sprint issues:
sprint in closedSprints()

Atlassian documents these JQL functions for the Sprint field, and openSprints() specifically returns issues assigned to a sprint that has started but has not been completed.

So instead of exporting everything and asking Excel to guess which sprint is current, I would export separate datasets using those JQL filters. Then your Google Sheets/Excel formulas can work from a clean category: current, future, or closed.

If you must keep one combined export, then I would add a helper column in Sheets that classifies the row based on which export/query it came from, rather than based on the first or last Sprint value in the cell.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Mahanth Prudhvi P 

According to your example it's alphabetically.

This is also not something that can be changed I expect, as you can edit excel export options

[Mahanth Prudhvi P]

Hi @Marc -Devoteam- - 

Thanks for the response. My confusion here is that I wanted to know in what format it is exported, so that I can set formulas in Excel to identify and fetch the current sprint only for the reports.