Auto-Number your Flowchart in Lucidchart

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 3, 2023
29 replies
4143 views

+9

Leah W
Lucid support team

Looking for a way to auto-number the steps in your flowchart? Check out this post on how you can utilize conditional formatting and formulas to accomplish this!

Please use the steps below to accomplish this on your diagram.

1. Add shape data "Start" to a start node with the value 0. This allows shapes connected to it to know it's part of the flow chart (as opposed to the note).

2. Add data "Distance" to all of the shapes with the formula =count(upstreamdeep) + upstreamdeep.Start. This will be defined with the distance from start or error (if the shape is not in the flow chart).

3. Add page data "Numbering" with the formula

=groupby(map(sort(filter(children, x => and(not(iserror(x.Distance)), itemtype(x) = 'Block')), 'asc', x => x.Distance + 0), x => object('id', label(x), 'index', x.index)), x => x.id, x => x.index)

. This formula sorts all blocks in the flow chart by distance and then groups them into an object where the key is the shape label (ID) and the value is the index returning in a mapping from block to unique numbering.

4. Lastly add a conditional formatting rule to add a badge when NOT(ISERROR(@Distance)) and itemtype = 'Block' (to prevent them from showing on lines) with the formula =GET(Page."Numbering", label) for the badge label. See screenshot for what the conditional formatting rule should look like (no else condition needed for this).

These steps will allow you to easily add and update step numbers to process flows while eliminating any duplicate numbers!

Useful Links:

Conditional Formatting in Lucidchart

Formulas help center article

geoffmaddox

It looks like there was an error in the original formatting of the formula in Step 3 that stripped out the commas. Here’s the corrected formula with the commas added in (the original post has been updated):

=groupby(map(sort(filter(children, x => and(not(iserror(x.Distance)), itemtype(x) = 'Block')), 'asc', x => x.Distance + 0), x => object('id', label(x), 'index', x.index)), x => x.id, x => x.index)

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+16

Kelsey Gaag
Lucidite
Forum|Forum|8 months ago
July 28, 2025

Hi @TroyCross,

Thank you for the reply! To do this, you would either need to manually renumber using the data panel or utilize our data import feature to import new data to make changes. If you have an enterprise level account you can link data to Google Sheets or Excel, this allows for automatic updates when the data is changed.

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Mario.TZ
Forum|Forum|1 month ago
March 20, 2026

Hi, while this works well for open flowcharts, how do I get it to work when swimlanes are used?

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+15

Leianne C
Lucid support team
Forum|Forum|28 days ago
March 26, 2026

Hi @Mario.TZ, thank you for continuing this thread. Would you mind sharing a bit more details about how you’d like the auto numbering to work with swimlanes? For example, would you like it to be different for each lane?

This will help us take a closer look and share the best recommendations for your use-case. Thank you!

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+15

Leianne C
Lucid support team
Forum|Forum|9 hours ago
April 23, 2026

Hi @Mario.TZ, just following up with some advice that our development team shared regarding numbering with swimlanes. This will depends on how the auto-numbering would be expected to work within the swimlanes.

There are likely a lot of potential ways to number a process diagram within a swimlane, all of which might be valid depending on the expected outcome. For example, if we have the attached process diagram in swimlanes, how should we number sticky note k? Should it be numbered 4 (because it's the 4th in that lane) or 11 (because it's the 11th in the entire swimlane diagram)? Or should sticky note d be numbered 1 (since it's the first in lane B) or 4 (since it's the 4th in the diagram)?

One approach is to include the swimlane with the label (attached picture 2) using the overall ordering (e.g. B.4).
Another approach is to do essentially thing as the page numbering, but for each swimlane (attached picture 3).

It is definitely possible to get the auto-numbering to interact with swimlanes. The latter approach is functionally the same as the original one, with the diagram completely connected with Start and Distance, only in this case the ordering property is on the swimlane shape itself using a formula that calculates the ordering by lane:

=map(this.$lanes, l => groupby(map(sort(filter(l.$contents, x => and(not(iserror(x.Distance)), itemtype(x) = 'Block')), 'asc', x => x.Distance + 0), x => object('id', label(x), 'index', x.index)), x => x.id, x => x.index))

and the conditional formatting references it using =containedby.LaneOrdering[this.$id] (where containedby finds the containing shape and LaneOrdering is the name of the property with the above formula)