single select vs lookup

Question

I’m importing data and Airtable determines that one field should be single select. This is totally fine but I’m wondering if it would be better to store the selections in a separate table and use a lookup.

Is there a performance or size benefit to keeping all the possible choices for this column in a lookup table vs the single select options in the same table? So far, the largest number of choices from my data is 13 but there could be more.

Let’s say I’m importing 8 data sets into new tables, each with a column that could be single select. The single select values would be unique for each table. Would it be worth the effort to populate the values from that column for all 8 tables into a separate lookups table? This raises the question of how to link that column or use a lookup after importing. Is there a programmatic way to do a lookup with a formula?

ScottWorld · Accepted Answer

It doesn’t need to be a new table — it can be an existing table too.

But unless you have a reason to make the values their own individual records, I would just keep them as options in the single select field.

- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

ScottWorld · Answer

After the import, you can convert the single select field to a linked record field, and Airtable will automatically create those values for you as records in a new table.

This would be the best choice to make if you need to keep track of additional information for each value.

Otherwise, if they’re just simple choices, a single select field is fine.

Hope this helps!

If you have a budget and you’d like to hire the world’s best Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything else that is Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

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