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I am working on documenting a language.



I have a base with two tables.



The primary field for the first table is “Words”.


Examples of records in this field: Car, Day



The primary field for the second table is “Phrases”.


Examples of records in this field: new car, fast car, cloudy day, day of rest



I want to create a linked field on the first table so that I can see all the phrases that contain the word.



So, in the row for “car”, I want a record that will show me “new car” and “fast car”.



I know how to link tables. It’s quite easy.



I want to know if it’s possible to automate this.



Right now, it’s quite cumbersome. I have to go into the linked field and manually add all the phrases that I want.



I want to automate this so whenever a phrase is added on the second table that has a certain word in it (that matches to a word on the first table), it will automatically pop up in the linked field on the first table.



Is this possible? If so, how can I accomplish this?


Thank you very much in advance for any help!

There may be a way to do this using the help of an integration service like Zapier or Integromat. Aside from that, the best I can come up with involves a slight change to your process. Rather than manually build links from the [Words] table to the [Phrases] table, work the other way around, and let Airtable help with the link building.



In your [Phrases] table, add a formula field (I called mine {Split}) that replaces the spaces in your phrases with comma-space combos, like so:



SUBSTITUTE(Phrases, " ", ", ")


Next to this, add a link field that points to your [Words] table, and which allows for linking to multiple records. We’ll get to that in a moment.



Now start filling up your main {Phrases} field as you like, watching the split phrases appear in the adjacent field:





Once you’ve got a bunch of phrases built, copy the contents of the relevant entries in the {Split} field, and paste them into the adjacent field linking to your oWords] table. The end result should look like this:





Now jump to your oWords] table, and each word will be linked to the relevant phrases. Airtable will even make new records for words that didn’t previously exist. When I started this, I only had a “car” record. Airtable added the other three:





It’s still a manual process, but now it’s just copying and pasting from one field to another, and letting Airtable take care of the links.

Justin,



Thank you so much!



I’m extremely grateful. I was able to apply your solution quite easily! The one manual step involved isn’t all that onerous.



Thanks again.



Gabe

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