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Hello.

I am new to Airtable and I have a question concerning linking to another record. 

Is it possible to automate this process so that data from every record from a field (column) on the "source" table may be copied to a field on the "target" table? The data would need to be consecutive and ordered by the same ID number used on both tables

I found a JavaScript online that may work, unfortunately, 1) I have the free plan and scripting is not supported; and 2) my experience with JavaScript is limited. I added a third party add-in, however, the apparent complexity of the application may prove to be problematic.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks!

​@cubsfan100 

Welcome to Airtable... from one Cubs fan to another!! 😃

You would not need Javascript for something like this. (In fact, you will almost never need Javascript when working with Airtable.)

But unfortunately, you didn’t give enough details so that I can properly answer your question.

Here are a few questions that I have:

  • What do your 2 tables represent? And why are there 2 separate tables?
  • Do you already have data in Airtable and you’re trying to normalize your data? Or are you trying to set it up so that you can enter data in the future?
  • Please explain exactly what you are hoping to accomplish.

Also, since you are brand new to Airtable, you might gain some valuable insights by taking my free Airtable training course, which you can take for free by signing up for a free 30-day trial with LinkedIn Learning.

Note that the course is extremely outdated because it was created many years ago using one of the very earliest versions of Airtable. It was created before automations even existed, and it was created years before interfaces existed!

However, I discuss linked records in depth, and all of the core concepts of building a base remain the same to this day — such as working with linked record fields, working with lookup fields, and how to properly structure your base.

Hope this helps!

If you have a budget and you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything else that is Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

Two approaches to this depending on what you’re looking for…

Most common: If you want the target table to display updated information from the source table, you can use lookup fields. So as long as the records are linked between the tables, just add lookup fields for whatever columns you want in the target table. 

Less common: If for some reason you don’t want the target table information to update but have information copied over from source at a point in time, you can pretty easily set up an automation to do this. Just use an Automation triggered on when linked record isn’t empty, and then update the record in the target table record using information from the source table record. This won’t update record information in target when source changes (it’s not synced so to speak) but occasionally I could imagine a utility like this. 

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