Skip to main content

I have encountered an contradictory issue wherein two schemas which are topologically identical are treated differently; one works fine and the other throws a circular reference error.

I have distilled the issue into a very simple example base. Here’s a link:

Table 1 contains a record which is linked to another record contained in Table 2. The record’s name is a function of a value looked up in the linked record.

Everything is copacetic.

However, if I attempt to synthesize the records into a single table, AirTable gets hung up on a circular reference.

My questions are:

  1. Why are these two schemas fundamentally different from each other?

  2. What are my options for getting around this circular reference? I want to keep both records in the same table, and I need the name to be a function of the lookup field.

Thanks in advance!

Bumping this issue as it seems to be an inconsistency in the product design and should be addressed one way or another.

Here’s a look at the schema for the two scenarios.

Using two tables, the schema does not cause a circular reference

However, I cannot achieve the same thing when the two tables are joined.

The red link is the one I wish to establish, but which caused a circular reference that does not make sense to me.

Is there a fundamental reason that Tables 1 & 2 are fine, but Table 3 (as I wish it to be) is not?

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement