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Hi All,

I have a field of type multi select option in airtable form. I would like to prefill that using Prefilling form feature of airtable. I have referred below airtable documentation for the same. But, this option didn’t work out for me.

Formula Used to pre-fill the field

“URL?” &
“prefill_domain=” & ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT({domain} & “”) & “&” &
“prefill_Source%20Category=” & ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT({category} & “”) & “&” &
“prefill_Target%20Category=” & ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT({category} & “”)

FYI.
prefill_Source%20Category=
This field is of type multi select option.May I know, what mistake i’m doing in the formula? Would you please help me to correct the formula,if it’s wrong?

I am using below extension to generate formula.

Can you post screen shots of your data including column headings ? Do all of the options already exist in the configuration of the multiple select?


Can you post screen shots of your data including column headings ? Do all of the options already exist in the configuration of the multiple select?


@kuovonne
I am populating value of category column from domain-category table into Source Category column of another table(SUBS-Table).

SUBS-Table Schema

domain,Source Category,Source URL,Target Category,Target URL,Email

As I already mentioned, Source Category and Target Category both are of type multi select.


Thank you for the screen shot. Can you also post screen shots of the configuration of the multiple-select field that you want to prefill?

It looks like the {category} field in the [domain-category] table is a long text field with choices separated by pipes |. However, when prefilling a muli-select field, the options need to be separated by commas ,. You may be able to use this in your formula to replace the pipes with commas …

ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT(SUBSTITUTE({category}, "|", ","))

Thank you for the screen shot. Can you also post screen shots of the configuration of the multiple-select field that you want to prefill?

It looks like the {category} field in the [domain-category] table is a long text field with choices separated by pipes |. However, when prefilling a muli-select field, the options need to be separated by commas ,. You may be able to use this in your formula to replace the pipes with commas …

ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT(SUBSTITUTE({category}, "|", ","))

@kuovonne
Thank you for replying to me. As {category} field was ‘|’ delimited. Hence , i tried to use below formula with SUBSTITUTE option. But still, didn’t work for me.

“url?” &
“prefill_domain=” & ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT({domain} & “”) & “&” &
“prefill_Source%20Category=” & ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT(SUBSTITUTE({category}, “|”, “,”) & “”) & “&” &
“prefill_Target%20Category=” & ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT({category} & “”)

multiple-select configuration


@kuovonne
Thank you for replying to me. As {category} field was ‘|’ delimited. Hence , i tried to use below formula with SUBSTITUTE option. But still, didn’t work for me.

“url?” &
“prefill_domain=” & ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT({domain} & “”) & “&” &
“prefill_Source%20Category=” & ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT(SUBSTITUTE({category}, “|”, “,”) & “”) & “&” &
“prefill_Target%20Category=” & ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT({category} & “”)

multiple-select configuration


Thank you for the screen capture. Your multi-select field has no options. You cannot prefill a multi-select field unless the value already exist as options for the field.


Thank you for the screen capture. Your multi-select field has no options. You cannot prefill a multi-select field unless the value already exist as options for the field.


@kuovonne Then , how to prefill this field dynamically? Providing the value as option to this field is nothing but assigning values statically . But, i would like to fill up those options dynamically?

Is there a way to populate multi-select field dynanically?


@kuovonne Then , how to prefill this field dynamically? Providing the value as option to this field is nothing but assigning values statically . But, i would like to fill up those options dynamically?

Is there a way to populate multi-select field dynanically?


This is honestly a no-duh value add feature that is hugely annoying you don't have.  Silly AirTable.


It is very easy to prefill a form with dynamic multi-select values by using a prefill URL.

If you’re using Airtable’s forms, you would just need to make sure that there is a comma in between each one of your multiselect values.

So to prefill a form that has a field called “Multiselect” with the values 1, 2, and 3, your resulting URL would look something like this: https://airtable.com/appXXXXXXXX/pagXXXXXXXX/form?prefill_Multiselect=1,2,3

One downside to this is that none of your multiselect values can contain commas in their values.

To help you build your dynamic prefill URL formula, you can use Kuovonne’s Prefilled Forms extension.

However, for a much easier, much quicker, and much better way of prefilling forms (that won’t restrict the types of values that your multi-select field can contain), I would highly recommend using Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable.

Fillout is 100% free and it gives you 4 different ways to prefill a form — and 3 of those ways don’t even require you to create a complicated prefill URL at all.

Even better, Fillout offers a 5th way to prefill a form, because it allows you to update Airtable records directly with a form, You would use this method if you’re trying to update an existing record in Airtable.

Fillout also offers hundreds of advanced form features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer. I show how to use a few of the advanced features of Fillout on these 2 Airtable podcast episodes:

Hope this helps!

If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld