Populating drop-down list with values from a field

Yes, Airtable will automatically turn all of your field values into drop-down options when you convert your text field to a single-select field or a multi-select field.

For even more flexibility, you can convert your text field to a linked record field, and then you can keep track of your options in a separate table with their own additional fields.

You can learn more about all of these field typyes by taking my free Airtable training course, which you can take for free by signing up for a free 30-day trial with LinkedIn Learning.

Hope this helps!

If you have a budget and you’d like to hire the 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

Thank you for replying. I have read of this, though I don’t believe this is a solution as it is a one-time only, manual event. When the data in the original column is added to or changes, those changes would not be reflected in the drop-down options.

That’s not true. Airtable always adds the values into the options. So convert your field first to either a single-select, multi-select, or linked record field... and then you will get the behavior you’re looking for.

- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

Does it need to be a dropdown? What you’re describing sounds like it could be implemented as a linked record – with the caveat that the “column” that populates the dropdown would have to be its own table, or the primary/name field of an existing table.

Right, linked fields have the same behavior, with the advantage of each option is its own record in another table.

Since you’re new to Airtable, I would highly recommend checking out my free Airtable training course, which covers all of these topics:

I am happy to give this a try, entirely possible I am missing a common function.

To clarify:

• Table A contains a “Fruit” field/column listing 50 fruit names (Apple, Orange, etc.).
• Table B is an empty table which will ideally contain a “Fruit Selection” field (or “column” - I like to use both terms as many users who eventually read this may be coming from an Excel/Sheets or SQL environment, all of which use “column”), which will be a Single-Select drop-down field.

Using a form attached to Table B, would a user be able to interact with this Single-Select drop-down field and select a fruit name from it, all of which will be dynamically-populated from the “Fruit” field in Table A? If the value “Apple” in Table A were changed to read as “Green Apple” and the form page was refreshed, would the Single-Select drop-down field display the updated value “Green Apple” rather than the original “Apple” value?

The difference with linked record fields is that if you delete the linked record from the table, that record’s value will no longer appear in the dropdown list. Single selects and multi selects can contain values that aren’t currently in use.

After trying this suggestion, this does not appear to be the behavior I describe above, there may be a misunderstanding as to what is being asked (thank you for your patient responses). An example may be easier to follow:

• Table A features a single “Fruit” column featuring a list of fruit names.
• Table B features a “Fruit Selection” field/column and does not contain any data - all rows are blank and should remain blank, as this table exists to collect user input from a Form
• The Fruit Selection field is a Single-Select field. The user will select a fruit name from a drop-down field on a Form, and their selections will populate in the Fruit Selection field in Table B
• The Fruit Selection field in Table B should be a dynamic drop-down field that populates its options using the data from the Fruit field in Table A without any manual action by the user. If a value in Table A’s Fruit field is updated or removed, that change is then reflected in the Fruit Selection drop-down field automatically

Is this a function I can achieve natively within Airtable?

2025 Update:

This is now possible with Airtable’s feature called dynamic filtering in linked record fields.

This feature is also built into Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable.

- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

Thank you for clarifying. I will take care to make this request, I’m sure the importance of this feature has been stressed by many users over the years.

Coda does it beautifully

Bro, i was having the same issue and i could solve it with a simple automation:

IF

- Step 1 (When a record matches condition): If "Column B" is empty and "Column A" name is not empty

Then

- Step 2 (Update record): 

   - Record ID: "Step 1 Record ID"
   - "Column B" (Choosing a Dynamic value): "Column A Value"

That will update the field and also create the new value for a single select field

But the trouble there is that Column A and Column B in Sean Comerford's scenario come from 2 different tables. Your Step 1 has two conditions based on a single table. 

That's exactly what I came here looking for. I have a long and frequently changing list of ongoing projects that users must select from. If I have to maintain the dropdown by typing in and deleting the choices for "Option 1" "Option 2" "Option 3" etc in that field, it's not going to work. No movement from Airtable yet?