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Lookup fields with complex requirements

  • July 1, 2026
  • 3 replies
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K
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I have created a base for cataloguing books/manga. The problem I’m having is with audiobook narrators. When a book is logged, they sometimes have two different narrators. They log the narrators names and the strengths and weaknesses of each narrator. For a specific example, lets say there are two narrators. Narrator 1 is Julia Whelan and Narrator 2 is Will Damron. Narrator 1 strengths (a multi select field)  “Distinct Character Voices” and “Emotional Resonance”. Narrator 2 strengths are “Good Articulation/Pronunciation” and “Good Rhythm and Pacing”. Then the information is supposed to go to a narrator table where it logs this information. Because they narrate multiple books, these strengths can be added to with other books. The issue is that as far as I can figure, a lookup field won’t work because they need to apply to only the correct narrator. A rollup has the same issue. I can do it via automation but that gets really messy and complicated because it will create extra little bubbles like the pic below if you don’t do an effective enough check to see if the narrator table fields were empty or already have information. Which makes for some really complex if/else statements. Does anyone have any ideas that would work for this?

Here’s an example of the messy automation mentioned:

 

3 replies

TheTimeSavingCo
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Hm, it feels like there needs to be a third table called ‘Narrators <> Books’ or something, and each record would represent a single narrator for a single book, and I’ve set it up here for you to check out

This would then allow us to do a rollup that would display all of that narrator’s strengths:

 

The problem with this is that if a narrator has the same strength in a different book, it’s possible for it to show up as a duplicate because they’re technically different arrays and so ARRAYUNIQUE doesn’t work

To fix that, you can have an automation that just pastes the values from the rollup field into a multiple select field and that’ll help you get rid of the duplicates:

 

Adam, Airtable Consultant - thetimesaving.company
K
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  • kaitlin0879
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  • July 1, 2026

 Sorry, I should have posted the workflow before. All of the information comes in through a single form when a book/manga is added. That goes to a table called media import. When that record is created it is then filtered down to the appropriate tables (books, manga, authors, narrators, series, master series) using a combination of lookups, rollups, and automations. The automations for the most parts simply add new records to the different tables if they are new, or add the linked records in the appropriate fields if the record for that already exists. So the Media Import table has what you’re talking about to a certain degree as it tracks all of the books with them as a narrator but then the narrator table has that as well, or will, once i can fix this issue.

DisraeliGears01
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It sounds like this is a forms issue more than a data structure issue. Trying to have one master form that breaks out into data components does get complicated quickly haha. When it comes to forms as always I’ve got to recommend you check out Fillout Forms, as it lets users create, edit, and attach linked records as part of a single form. Then users can attach or create a Narrator record with appropriate traits. 

From a data structure perspective, one other thought I had was potentially making a formula field that associates the name (or an abbreviated version) to the traits, and then looking that field up in your book field, so the field ends up as “Julia- Distinct Character Voices, Julia- Emotional Resonance, Will- Good rhythm and pacing...”

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