Scripting Error - Deleting Fields In Table.

Hi ​@MontanaGeek,

This one is quite interesting. I wasn’t aware there was a deleteFieldAsync function in the Airtable API. I can’t find it in any documentation online. I’m curious to see the script you had that gave you the error message you showed. Has anyone else seen this function before?

Hi ​@airvues 

Sure thing, here is the code below: (change Dry run to false for it to apply changes)


 

/***** SETTINGS *****/
const DRY_RUN = true;              // ← set to false to actually delete fields
const MATCH_TEXT = "(SS)";         // delete any field whose name CONTAINS this text (case-sensitive)
const REQUIRE_CONFIRM = true;      // when live, require typing DELETE to confirm

/***** TABLE *****/
const TABLE_NAME = "Form Questions";
const table = base.getTable(TABLE_NAME);

/***** CAPABILITY CHECK *****/
const canDelete = (typeof table.deleteFieldAsync === "function");
output.text(`deleteFieldAsync available: ${canDelete ? "yes" : "no"}`);

if (!canDelete && !DRY_RUN) {
  output.text("⚠️ Your current environment/role does not support deleting fields via script.");
  output.text("   Please run this in Extensions → Scripting with a Creator role, or delete the fields manually.");
  // Fall through to list targets so you can delete manually
}

/***** FIND TARGET FIELDS *****/
const targets = table.fields.filter(f => f.name.includes(MATCH_TEXT));
if (targets.length === 0) {
  output.text(`No fields in "${TABLE_NAME}" contain "${MATCH_TEXT}".`);
  return;
}

output.text(`Found ${targets.length} field(s) to delete (name contains "${MATCH_TEXT}"):\n`);
targets.forEach(f => output.text(" - " + f.name));

if (DRY_RUN) {
  output.text("\nDRY RUN: no fields were deleted. Set DRY_RUN = false to proceed.");
  return;
}

if (!canDelete) {
  output.text("\nDeletion not supported in this environment. Please delete the above fields manually.");
  return;
}

/***** OPTIONAL CONFIRMATION *****/
if (REQUIRE_CONFIRM) {
  const typed = await input.textAsync(
    `\nType DELETE to remove ${targets.length} field(s) from "${TABLE_NAME}". This is IRREVERSIBLE.`
  );
  if ((typed || "").trim().toUpperCase() !== "DELETE") {
    output.text("Cancelled. No fields were deleted.");
    return;
  }
}

/***** DELETE LOOP *****/
let deleted = 0, failed = 0;
for (const f of targets) {
  try {
    await table.deleteFieldAsync(f);
    output.text(`✅ Deleted: ${f.name}`);
    deleted++;
  } catch (e) {
    output.text(`❌ Failed: ${f.name} → ${e}`);
    failed++;
  }
}

/***** SUMMARY *****/
output.text("\n--- SUMMARY ---");
output.text(`Deleted: ${deleted}`);
output.text(`Failed: ${failed}`);
 

Sounds good, thank you for looking at this.