Skip to main content

Hi everyone!


I don’t think this topic has been covered but if it has, I apologise!


I’m trying to create an ‘If’ stated formula that connects two multi-reference fields. The aim is to automate the following: If I select a specific field on one row, I have to add the connecting, multiple fields to that in another column (which are a lot).


The logic would read like this:


If ‘anxiety’ is selected on the ‘feel statement’ column, then ‘I feel nervous/worried about most of the things I do’ and ‘I feel that something bad is about to happen’ and ‘I feel a lot of uncertainty in my daily life’ are selected on the ‘feel statement_softr’ column.


A field on one column (feel statement) is the diagnosis for the statements on another column (feel statement_softr). So for example:


Anxiety =



  • I feel nervous/worried about most of the things I do

  • I feel that something bad is about to happen

  • I feel a lot of uncertainty in my daily life

  • I feel panic and breathless at times


I’d need to add these connection between columns manually, for each entry, and I am looking to automate this.


I understand this needs nested ‘If’ statements and I have found good references for it, but none that deal with connecting two columns of ‘multi-reference’ fields and it’s getting incredibly confusing.



Thank you so much and apologies if this is a silly question!


Kas (Fewl)

Welcome to the community, @Hello_Fewl! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:



Unfortunately this isn’t possible. Formula fields can only affect their own output. They can’t change the output of other fields.


The design element of your desired setup that isn’t clear to me is this: why is the {Feel statement_Softr} field designed as a multiple-select field? Do you want the option of removing some of the associated items at some point, or is the collection of related statements always going to be left unchanged? If it’s the latter, you could turn {Feel statement_Softr} into a formula field. The formula would output specific text based on the option(s) selected in the {Feel statement} field. That’s the simplest way that I can think of to have those choices drive specific statements.


However, if you want the option of removing some statements later, that’s not going to work, and more details about your full use case would be helpful to give you better feedback.

Welcome to the community, @Hello_Fewl! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:



Unfortunately this isn’t possible. Formula fields can only affect their own output. They can’t change the output of other fields.


The design element of your desired setup that isn’t clear to me is this: why is the {Feel statement_Softr} field designed as a multiple-select field? Do you want the option of removing some of the associated items at some point, or is the collection of related statements always going to be left unchanged? If it’s the latter, you could turn {Feel statement_Softr} into a formula field. The formula would output specific text based on the option(s) selected in the {Feel statement} field. That’s the simplest way that I can think of to have those choices drive specific statements.


However, if you want the option of removing some statements later, that’s not going to work, and more details about your full use case would be helpful to give you better feedback.


Thank you so much for your quick response!! About the second {feel statement_soft} field. The reason why it is a multi-reference field is because it is linked to a Softr filtering system. Softr is the front end and it is connected to the database in Airtable. But the name of the buttons in the filtering system are different to those of the data points in the Airtable database. So I need to ‘duplicate’ data points.




  1. In Softr:

    “I feel nervous/worried about most of the things I do”




  2. In Airtable

    “I feel nervous/worried about most of the things I do” = “Anxiety”




  3. Back in Softr

    It filters the data points that have "“I feel nervous/worried about most of the things I do”




Point 2 is needed because as data records are added into the database, they have to be filtered in a ‘quicker’ manner, than adding 15 descriptions which ultimately all mean ‘anxiety’.


My initial solution was to create a formula to unite both data points. Softr does not seem to allow for ‘calculation’ formulas when it filters data, which is why they need to be ‘multi-reference fields’ to match the multi reference fields in Softr. If this isn’t possible, I guess I’d have to get more creative!




I’m not sure if this makes any sense, but please let me know if you can think of any other tips or tricks that may solve this!


Thank you so much!!

Thank you so much for your quick response!! About the second {feel statement_soft} field. The reason why it is a multi-reference field is because it is linked to a Softr filtering system. Softr is the front end and it is connected to the database in Airtable. But the name of the buttons in the filtering system are different to those of the data points in the Airtable database. So I need to ‘duplicate’ data points.




  1. In Softr:

    “I feel nervous/worried about most of the things I do”




  2. In Airtable

    “I feel nervous/worried about most of the things I do” = “Anxiety”




  3. Back in Softr

    It filters the data points that have "“I feel nervous/worried about most of the things I do”




Point 2 is needed because as data records are added into the database, they have to be filtered in a ‘quicker’ manner, than adding 15 descriptions which ultimately all mean ‘anxiety’.


My initial solution was to create a formula to unite both data points. Softr does not seem to allow for ‘calculation’ formulas when it filters data, which is why they need to be ‘multi-reference fields’ to match the multi reference fields in Softr. If this isn’t possible, I guess I’d have to get more creative!




I’m not sure if this makes any sense, but please let me know if you can think of any other tips or tricks that may solve this!


Thank you so much!!


I’ve mulled this over a bit more, and unfortunately I don’t know what else to suggest. I haven’t used Softr, and the way that Softr interfaces with Airtable is probably the biggest reason that I’m stumped on how to solve this. I’m going to tag one of the key people at Softr, @Narek_Bayadyan, who can probably offer better guidance.

I’ve mulled this over a bit more, and unfortunately I don’t know what else to suggest. I haven’t used Softr, and the way that Softr interfaces with Airtable is probably the biggest reason that I’m stumped on how to solve this. I’m going to tag one of the key people at Softr, @Narek_Bayadyan, who can probably offer better guidance.


Thanks for mentioning @Justin_Barrett


@Hello_Fewl you should be able to use the values of a formula field for filtering if that’s what you meant. Did you try that and it didn’t work?

Reply


Terms & Conditions