How to add multiple values in one cell from an automation

Hm, could you share a screenshot of the automation?

Hey Adam_C,

Sorry about that! I should have done this first. Anyway, here are the screenshots of the automation:

…and the error I’m getting on the “Find Records” action is “Invalid filter on Customer ID”.

dg

OK, I SWEAR that I have NO IDEA how, but this morning, AFTER I FINISHED THE SCREENSHOTS, I went back and looked at the table again… and I don’t understand it, but it’s working! I mean, not now… with the error an all… but look:

Can someone PLASE tell me WHAT I did and HOW I did it???

Thanks,

dg

Your automation was/is overwriting the cell because you told it to do that. If you want to include the Vehicles already linked to that customer, you have to actually include them.

Click the blue plus button and insert the current field value that Customer has for the {Vehicles Link to V} field followed by a comma and then followed by the Record ID of the Vehicle that triggered your automation.

One, THANK YOU! Two, I’m a little confused. I believe that you are talking about the “blue plus button” in the “Find Records” step. And if so, am I adding the {Vehicles Link to V} field to the {Where Customer ID is}? So it would be:

Where {Customer ID} is {Vehicles Link to V} + {Record ID *(from step 1)*}?

Thanks,

dg

Come on Kamille Parks, Community Leader… please don’t leave me hanging here!?! :upside_down_face:

Your response was posted 4 hours ago at 5am my time. I’m not waking up at 5am to answer your questions lol

No. In your second Update Record step you are inserting the record IDs from the Find Records step. Add a comma there, then add in the current value for the {Vehicle link to V} field. You’re concatenating them together. So if a Customer is already linked to “Vehicle 1, Vehicle 2” and the new vehicle that triggered the Automation is “Vehicle 3”, your resulting list would be either “Vehicle 3, Vehicle 1, Vehicle 2” or “Vehicle 1, Vehicle 2, Vehicle 3” depending on whether you put Find Records value before or after the comma.

Oooops, my bad! Super sorry about that :mantelpiece_clock: ! I’m just super anxious because I had everything working ok before I started with the automations. But I needed to automate more functions as I initially had the ‘operator’ doing a fair amount of input.

Once I learned automations the base kinda blew up with opportunity.

And all but this one is working awesomely!

So back to work here… I’m confused as to why the “Find Records” quit working. Don’t I need to fix that first? Because, as you see in this screenshot, I can’t use the “Find Records” field and I don’t know why!?!

dg

So I started playing around with it and I got the error message to go away…

…but is it correct???

dg

Looking at your whole Automation, its way more complicated than it needs to be. You can do this all in one step.

You don’t need the Find Records step at all. You’re trying to look for Customers where the primary field ({Customer ID}) equals some field in the Vehicles table ({S-W Customer ID}). Since the value you’re matching against is the primary field, all you need the Automation to do is have a single Update Record step that updates the Vehicle record which triggered the automation to copy the {S-W Customer ID} field into the {Link to Customer} field (or whatever its called).

Your first Update Record step is copying and pasting values from a Customer into the Vehicle record, but that is bad database design if you’re linking records together anyway. Convert {Cust. Name} and {Cust. Email} into Lookup fields and this information will be filled in as soon as the Vehicle is linked to the Customer.

If you really want to save yourself time, just convert your {S-W Customer ID} field into a Link field and call it a day. Unless you have a particular need to keep that field separate, just link Vehicles to Customers in the first place and you won’t need an Automation at all.

I know you are just helping out here, and your really good at it! But I’ve only been learning how to use Airtable for a few months.

I lost my job and was trying to help a friend out. But now I’m in over my head and could really use a set of eyes. The base began as a small little customer capture thing. But has morphed into something much larger… MUCH better!

As I said, when I 1st built the base it was pretty much all manual. But then I learned to link the tables… (sorta lol), and then I learned automations.

Now I’m all messed up! lol

I couldn’t pay you much, but would sure be willing to repay the effort in the future.

Anyway, thanks for your help!

dg

FOR EXAMPLE -

…please :slightly_smiling_face:

Ask yourself “when exactly do I want to create these records/send this email” and “when don’t I want to do it”. Check if your trigger matches both of those conditions.

A word of advice: do not try and automate a system before ironing out how to do it manually.

I would explore the basics of Airtable more fully before doing any automating. @ScottWorld has an excellent free course on Airtable that will cover the basics

There are also several youtube channels that have how-to videos for simple tasks and common use cases. Some top ones include GAP Consulting, All About That Base, and Ben Green. When you run into a specific problem you’re trying to solve. browse through either of those three’s catalogues to see if they have a video on the topic.

You got it! Thanks for the advice! I have a feeling we’ll talk again!

dg

Thanks so much, Kamille! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :heart:

Not quite free… FOURTY BUCKS A MONTH! And the ‘free’ part is “Scott” telling me how good he is!?!

I’m just trying to get some help for a project that I’m not even charging for!

NEXT!

dg

Um, did you miss the part about “one month free” and you can cancel anytime? Did you also miss the part where 2 of the training videos are offered for free without even signing up for an account?

Try to be more appreciative of people who are trying to help you for your budget of $0.