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Simple conditional logic to automatically populate another field?

  • March 31, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 249 views

Hello! I apologize for what may be a newbie question. I am currently trying to figure out if this is possible:

Under the single select option for Community, is it possible to set up conditional logic that automatically populates another column with either “remote” or “rural” depending on which community was selected? So far, we have been populating this column manually, but I would love to know if it can be automated.

Thank you!

4 replies

Kamille_Parks11
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You have a couple options:

  • Make a table for your Communities and define which communities are rural/remote there, and uses a LinkToAnotherRecord field for {Community} instead of a SingleSelect field with a Lookup field for {Status} instead of a SingleSelect field.
  • Turn {Status} into a Formula field using IF() or SWITCH(). The formula will depend on how many communities you have, and how many potential “statuses” there are.

Justin_Barrett
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@Kamille_Parks offers some great suggestions. To answer your original question, it’s not possible to directly have one field drive another field using logic; e.g. a formula field can’t determine what option appears in a single select field. It’s also not possible to add logic arbitrarily to any field type (much to the chagrin of many). Fields are either manual entry—single line text, single select, date, etc.—or calculated —formula, lookup, rollup, etc. They can’t be both.


  • Author
  • New Participant
  • March 31, 2021

You have a couple options:

  • Make a table for your Communities and define which communities are rural/remote there, and uses a LinkToAnotherRecord field for {Community} instead of a SingleSelect field with a Lookup field for {Status} instead of a SingleSelect field.
  • Turn {Status} into a Formula field using IF() or SWITCH(). The formula will depend on how many communities you have, and how many potential “statuses” there are.

Thank you so much! The solution is so much more simpler than I’d thought. I clearly have a lot to learn still! This works perfectly.


  • Author
  • New Participant
  • March 31, 2021

@Kamille_Parks offers some great suggestions. To answer your original question, it’s not possible to directly have one field drive another field using logic; e.g. a formula field can’t determine what option appears in a single select field. It’s also not possible to add logic arbitrarily to any field type (much to the chagrin of many). Fields are either manual entry—single line text, single select, date, etc.—or calculated —formula, lookup, rollup, etc. They can’t be both.


Thank you so much for your explanation! This is helpful!