Help

Field validation

Solved
Jump to Solution
6116 5
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Adam_Isler1
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Is there a way to put edit-checks or validations on a field? I’d like to restrict the range of numeric values that can be input to a numeric field.

1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
Jeremy_Oglesby
14 - Jupiter
14 - Jupiter

Unfortunately, no – there is no real field validation mechanism in Airtable.

A workaround you could use (inelegant as it may be) would be to place a formula field right next to the numeric input field that throws up a red stop sign emoji if the input is outside of the range – it at least serves as a visual indicator that an invalid input was entered.

Suppose you call the formula field “Invalid”, and give it this formula:

IF(
   OR(
      {Numeric Input Field} < 0,
      {Numeric Input Field} > 1.0
   ),
   "🛑"
)

You can then squish that field down to the smallest width that still shows your emoji, and it will just flag you that a value outside your accepted range has been entered in that field.

It’s better than nothing 🤷🏻‍♂️

See Solution in Thread

5 Replies 5
Jeremy_Oglesby
14 - Jupiter
14 - Jupiter

Unfortunately, no – there is no real field validation mechanism in Airtable.

A workaround you could use (inelegant as it may be) would be to place a formula field right next to the numeric input field that throws up a red stop sign emoji if the input is outside of the range – it at least serves as a visual indicator that an invalid input was entered.

Suppose you call the formula field “Invalid”, and give it this formula:

IF(
   OR(
      {Numeric Input Field} < 0,
      {Numeric Input Field} > 1.0
   ),
   "🛑"
)

You can then squish that field down to the smallest width that still shows your emoji, and it will just flag you that a value outside your accepted range has been entered in that field.

It’s better than nothing 🤷🏻‍♂️

Adam_Isler1
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Thanks. At least the answer is unambiguous and I understand how I could implement the suggested workaround. I’ll have to decide if it’s worthwhile for this particular instance but it’s a good approach that I may have use for in the future as well.

drorata
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Is this still the most updated answer? Introducing ways to validate the inputed data as soon as it's being inserted is a super important feature.

Important? Essential! Column/Field level validation at the atomic level is a basic feature of all spreadsheets.

DavidinSF
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Airtable has some pretty major holes in it that make is challenging to use as a multi-user tool. We have so much trouble with invalid entries. Not scalable. Where are the developers? Seems things haven't moved forward at all in 18 months. There are so many very cool features, but some really basic things are missing. I wish airtable would allow us to upvote features such as column validation (regex or something simpler), advanced form features etc. Great tool, but without the basics, you want to churn off of it as soon as you start to scale. Hard to understand the thought process?