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Use case:


At the end of my estimates (page designer), I want to put in an inspiring or humourous quote… but I don’t want to type it myself, just collect them in a field somewhere and have them appear with a formula.


What kind of formatting/formula would I need to have one long-not used quote selected from the list and popped on the paper?


Is there some kind of CHOOSE RANDOM FROM LIST function?


Thanks!


Insert inspiring quote here

There is no random function in Airtable formulas. You need to use a script in order to generate a random value.

There is no random function in Airtable formulas. You need to use a script in order to generate a random value.


As per @kuovonne, there is no random function, but this might be a suitable workaround:



I’ve got 3 fields here:



  • Created time - using the formual DATETIME_FORMAT(CREATED_TIME(), 'X') which gives the unix time in seconds

  • MOD - using the formula MOD({Created time}, 5). This gives the remainder when the created time is divided by 5

  • The Quote field using the formula:


SWITCH(

  MOD, 

  0, 'Quote A', 

  1, 'Quote B', 

  2, 'Quote C', 

  3, 'Quote D', 

  4, 'Quote E', 

  'Quote F'

)

So, based on the result of the MOD field, this will display Quote A, Quote B etc.


Not random at all, but unless there’s a very strict timing pattern when you are creating records, I’m sure you will get a reasonable spread of quotes across a number of records. You can extend to 10, 20, 30 quotes by changing the divisor on the MOD field.

As per @kuovonne, there is no random function, but this might be a suitable workaround:



I’ve got 3 fields here:



  • Created time - using the formual DATETIME_FORMAT(CREATED_TIME(), 'X') which gives the unix time in seconds

  • MOD - using the formula MOD({Created time}, 5). This gives the remainder when the created time is divided by 5

  • The Quote field using the formula:


SWITCH(

  MOD, 

  0, 'Quote A', 

  1, 'Quote B', 

  2, 'Quote C', 

  3, 'Quote D', 

  4, 'Quote E', 

  'Quote F'

)

So, based on the result of the MOD field, this will display Quote A, Quote B etc.


Not random at all, but unless there’s a very strict timing pattern when you are creating records, I’m sure you will get a reasonable spread of quotes across a number of records. You can extend to 10, 20, 30 quotes by changing the divisor on the MOD field.


Awesome, thanks! I’ll give it a go!

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