Kuovonne's Guide to Airtable

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- Kuovonne's Guide to Airtable
  Fields
  Overview of fields types
  Editable Field Types
  Computed Field Types
  Field Types by Formula Data Type
  Field Types in Scripting
  Specific field types
  Formula fields
  Demystifying Formulas (DareTable 2022)
  Rollup fields
  Select fields
  Attachment fields
  Uploading Attachments
  Attachment Size
  Attachment URLS
  Thumbnails
  Converting Field Types
  Naming fields
  Metadata fields
  Simple Metadata Fields
  Data Validation
  Additional Dependencies
  Original Record URL (Thumbprint) Field
  Column Divider Fields
  DareTable 2023 Presentation
  Field dependencies
  Formulas
  Formula Field Reference
  Writing Formulas
  Using AI to Write Formulas
  General tips for writing formulas
  Testing for Blank Values
  Drafting Formulas in Parts
  Function versus Operator
  Typing Special Characters
  Commenting Formulas
  Formulas to avoid
  Formatting Formulas
  Basic Rules
  Nested IF formulas
  SWITCH Formulas
  Operators
  Specific Formulas
  Ranges of Numbers Values
  Comma Separated List of Fields Values with Optional Fields
  Earliest / latest date across columns
  List Fields Values (one per line) with Optional Fields
  Rounding a date to the half year
  Url of Interface Page for a record
  Removing varying items from a list
  Data Type Conversion in Formulas
  Text to Numbers
  Numbers to Text
  Data type conversions with Dates
  Troubleshooting Formulas
  Formulas that won't save
  Hiding or showing #ERROR!
  Troubleshooting date/time/duration formulas
  Troubleshooting numeric formulas
  Troubleshooting formulas with lookups
  Troubleshooting text formulas
  Automations
  Triggering automations
  Triggering automations for typed values
  Triggering automations on existing records
  Sending Emails
  Ways to send emails
  Using links in emails
  Emailing Attachments
  Accessing updated record values
  Third party automations
  Managing automation runs
  Templates
  Templates for record values
  Templates using field values
  Controlling Access
  Sharing a base
  Access control considerations
  Techniques for limited access
  Airtable interface
  Share link access
  Synced table
  Prefilled forms + Automations
  3rd party portal
  3rd party webhook
  Preventing base duplication
  Specific Solutions
  Most recent form submission for ermail
  Email digest of a person’s records
  Sum of Multiple Select choices
  Link to multiple records based on select choices
  Dropping Lowest Score (top 4 of 5)
  Identify the position of a record in a linked record field (top 4 of 6)
  Sequential Numbering of Records
  Ending a list of rollup items with ", and"
  Table ID in a formula
  Latest/earliest date across several fields
  Associating People with Records
  First Tuesday of the Previous Month
  Miscellaneous
  Web API Calls for External Integrations
  Getting paid to work with Airtable
  Hiring a consultant
  Airtable Communities
  Making major changes to a base
  Suggestion for this guide

Kuovonne's Guide to Airtable

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Link to multiple records based on select choices

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Link to multiple records based on select choices

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⁠ Tip Jar ⁠ Thank Kuovonne for creating this content! ⁠ ⁠ ⁠

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Inspiration

this post in the Airtable community⁠

, a user fills out a form with a series of single select fields. For each single select field that is marked “yes”, the new record needs to be linked to a specific record.

At first the poster used a series of conditional actions, with one condition for each single select field. However, that did not work because only one conditional action actually runs.

Trying a conditional action for each combination of options

If there were only two or three single select fields, it would be possible to use conditional actions, with one conditional group for each combination.

Two single selects would require three conditions:

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Option 1 only

Option 2 only

Option 1 and Option 2

Three single selects would require seven conditions

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Option 1 only

Option 1 and Option 2

Option 1 and Option 3

Option 1, Option 2, and Option 3

Option 2 only

Option 2 and Option 3

Option 3 only

However, this is clearly not sustainable. Keeping track of all the different combinations is too much work.

Using a formula field

A better option is to use a formula field to calculate which options to link to and have the automation copy the formula result to the linked record field.

The formula does the heavy lifting of determining which records to link to, and the automation just creates the link.

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Here is the configuration of the formula in the screen shot above.

For each single select field, have an IF() function that outputs the primary field value of the record to link.

Concatenate the primary field value with a comma so that there will be commas in between the choices. (This assumes that there will be no commas in any of the primary field values.)

Join all of the primary field values with CONCATENATE().

Use REGEX_REPLACE() to remove the final trailing comma.

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Then the automation is a simple matter of updating the linked record field with the formula result.

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Multiple different linked record fields

If there will be multiple different linked record fields, use a helper formula field for each linked record field, and update all of the linked record fields with the results of their corresponding helper formula fields.

⁠ ⁠ Thank Kuovonne for creating this content! ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠

⁠

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