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Hi everyone - I’m attempting to run an automation to update a table and running into some issues and hoping someone can help out. Here is the set up:



Two tables (table 1 and table 2)



Table 1 has three columns: URL, #, and Name



Table 2 has two columns: URL and Name



Basically, when I add a record to table 1, and the URL matches a URL from table 2, I want the Name from table 2 to populate the Name field in table 1.



I have an automation set it, and when I test it it runs correctly, but when I attempt to add a record in Table 1 it fails. The set up is like this:



When record is created in table 1, find record in table 2 where URL contains field value from new record in table 1, update record value “Name” in table 1. AS mentioned, when I test it it works, but when it runs on the table it fails and I get an error that says “Invalid filter on URL” in the find records step. Any ides on how to fix this or another way to do this? Thanks!

A. Unless you’re submitting all new records to Table 1 via a form or externally through the API, a new record is created with all fields blank (apart from niche circumstances like duplicating an existing record, adding from a grouped view, etc.)



You set your automation to run when a record is created, and at the time it is created the URL field is probably empty. There is nothing in Table 2 to match it against so nothing gets linked. Your tests worked because you picked a test record that the URL fields filled in.





Question: Are your tables supposed to be identical except Table 1 has one more field than Table 2, or will Table 1 will have many fewer/more total records than exist in in Table 2?

Thank you! That makes sense.



For your questions, yep they are suppose to be nearly identical, but Table 1 will have many more records in it than Table 2. Every month I run a report in Google Analytics with information about certain pages. I export that report and copy and paste it into Airtable. In Table 1, I can paste the first two columns of information (URL and 😵, but the Name column is not information that is stored in GA. Essentially, I would like Airtable to be able to match the URL from Table 1 with a URL in Table 2 and populate the associated Name in that column in Table 1 when I do a bulk upload.

You may consider field config, where URL is link field and Name is lookup (both in table 1). Default AT behavior - if you put value in link field which is not existing in linked table, it creates a new record there. Can be avoided by primary formula field.

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