Oh in this case the variable is the alternate values of a drop down for project selection, where the usernames are the project manager(s).

So the user filling out the form is not choosing multiple users for assignment, but we want to have multiple users associated with one variable.

How will you get project manager(s) list based on project selection?

Using alternate values. I have a drop down of projects for the initiator to select on the form. The alternate values contain the username(s) of the project manager.

Often we are getting approver information from lookups to other systems, but in this case they only have Forms and no other systems to lookup from. So we use alternate values instead.

With a lookup the solution is simple, populate a collection for each manager. But with alternate values it seems to be restricted to only one username per selection without building a custom javascript add-on.

One thing that many of our medium sized customers need is a simple table system to store information like approvers and managers for use in forms when they do not use outside systems to look this stuff up.

I see, I was thinking about lookup... Assign user task to multiple users with single variable by splitting is not supported.

A workaround can be populate the value to a hidden single line field inside collection/table by formula (e.g. =INDEX(SPLIT(Drop_down, ","), ROW())). While the formula won't populate collection/table sets/rows, it needed to be predefined so that it has enough sets/rows to hold values. Then use the variable inside collection/task in user task assignment.

Ah this is interesting, it would almost work except I can't find anything for this language that allows me to work with null rows.

I just want to do the following, so that null is converted to a blank string.

=IF(INDEX(SPLIT(Drop_down_1, ","), ROW()),INDEX(SPLIT(Drop_down_1, ","), ROW()),"")

But even the IF method doesn't know how to read a null value.

The LEN method doesn't know the length of null

Everything just blows up with nulls.

The problem is, if you insert null instead of a blank string into a single line, Forms throws a calculation error, which will prevent submission of the form. This is the problem with splitting.