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Wow, I have been using Airtable for years and cannot figure out what I’m missing- probably something extremely obvious.


I’m trying to set up two views with opposite information. In one view, I only want the records that are not done, or are not identical to show, so I want two things filtered out:

“Done” is unchecked OR

“Are the forms identical” is unchecked.


On the other view, I want the reverse- records that are done or are identical, so I have the filters as:

“Done” is checked OR

“Are the forms identical” is checked.


However, the first view is only working if I select AND instead of or, even though I am not looking for records with both of these conditions, rather, either of these conditions. What am I missing here?


Screenshots:

The view showing the records I want to filter out, and the filters I think should do it, having no effect.


Same view with the records filtered out, with AND instead of OR.


The other view, with the reverse records- using OR.

The filter is working exactly as outlined in all three cases.



I think this is the problem. You’re not thinking correctly about the filter system. You’re not filtering records out with the conditions that you set. You’re filtering out any record that does not match those conditions. In other words, the filter determines which records are kept, not removed.


In your first screenshot, you’re using OR between the conditions, which means that a record will be kept if at least one condition is met. All of those visible records match at least one condition: they either are not done OR they’re not identical. If a record is identical but not checked as done, it still matches the not-done condition, so it’s left in. If a record is done but not identical, it still matches the not-identical condition, so it’s also left in.

The filter is working exactly as outlined in all three cases.



I think this is the problem. You’re not thinking correctly about the filter system. You’re not filtering records out with the conditions that you set. You’re filtering out any record that does not match those conditions. In other words, the filter determines which records are kept, not removed.


In your first screenshot, you’re using OR between the conditions, which means that a record will be kept if at least one condition is met. All of those visible records match at least one condition: they either are not done OR they’re not identical. If a record is identical but not checked as done, it still matches the not-done condition, so it’s left in. If a record is done but not identical, it still matches the not-identical condition, so it’s also left in.


(sorry, me from my personal account!)


Thank you for explaining @Justin_Barrett and I think I’m getting closer. Maybe my issue is the double negatives, so I’ll try it in words:


In the first view, I



  • do NOT want records where checkbox 1 is checked AND I do NOT want records where checkbox 2 is checked.

  • I DO want records where checkbox 1 is not checked AND I do not want records where checkbox 2 is checked.


I think where I’m getting tripped up is misplacing the parentheses in a hypothetical formula. I’m thinking of the filter that’s working as



IF(statement 1 AND statement 2 are true) then filter the records



but that’s not actually what’s happening.


Why does view 1 with the checkbox=0 work with AND and view 2 with checkbox=1 work with OR?

(sorry, me from my personal account!)


Thank you for explaining @Justin_Barrett and I think I’m getting closer. Maybe my issue is the double negatives, so I’ll try it in words:


In the first view, I



  • do NOT want records where checkbox 1 is checked AND I do NOT want records where checkbox 2 is checked.

  • I DO want records where checkbox 1 is not checked AND I do not want records where checkbox 2 is checked.


I think where I’m getting tripped up is misplacing the parentheses in a hypothetical formula. I’m thinking of the filter that’s working as



IF(statement 1 AND statement 2 are true) then filter the records



but that’s not actually what’s happening.


Why does view 1 with the checkbox=0 work with AND and view 2 with checkbox=1 work with OR?


I think you’re not describing the logic correctly. Let me go back to your original post for a moment.



If it works with AND, then AND is how it should be. I’m not sure why you feel it should be OR, because the output that you get in that second screenshot—the one that you say is working, where neither checkbox is checked in any record—matches the logic when using AND.


The OR option means that only one condition must be met in order for the record to be kept in the view. If the other condition is not met, it doesn’t matter. At least one condition passes, so the record is kept. Going back to how that first screenshot looks, each record successfully matches one of the two conditions. One checkbox is unchecked in each case. It doesn’t matter that the other checkbox is checked.

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