Create record on trigger if it doesn't exist

[Mike_Osborne]

I’m collecting name and email (and other data) from a form, entering it into Table A. Using a “new record” trigger on Table A, I want to create a new record in Table B using name and email, but only if a record doesn’t exist yet.

Is this possible? I thought I could do it with the “find record” action, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to specify a following action if nothing is found.

[ScottWorld]

Welcome to the community, @Mike_Osborne!

Unfortunately, this can not be done because Airtable’s automations don’t support conditional logic. This can only be done by writing your own custom JavaScript or by using an external automation tool like Integromat.

However, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, you might be able to create a link to your 2nd table from the 1st table (for example, using the email address as the primary column in the 2nd table), and then simply use an automation to “copy and paste” the email address from the original field in the 1st table to the linked record field in the 1st table. That would have the effect of either linking to the existing record in the 2nd table, or creating a new record in the 2nd table if it doesn’t already exist.

[Mike_Osborne]

Thanks @ScottWorld - I guess we can make do for now.

[Hannah_Stevenso]

Hi, just wondering if this is possible now? It’s been a couple of years and Airtable gets updated a lot so fingers crossed! @ScottWorld

[kuovonne]

The options haven’t changed since Scott posted them a few months ago.

[Hannah_Stevenso]

I thought it was posted in 2018 but it was the 18th May :joy:

[Hannah_Stevenso]

Can you explain the 2nd table option to me a bit more? I’m struggling to make sense of it.

I want to be able to create a set of tasks but only if they haven’t already been created.