Removing one record from a multiple linked record field

[Joachim_Brindea]

Hello everyone,

I have:

• a webhook sending a user RecordID.
• a linked record field containing multiple users

How can I remove just that one user from the linked record field?
So far I’ve managed to add a single user, or to replace them all with one user…

I would appreciate some help!
Thank you

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hey Joachim, I think the only way to do that would be to get the existing array of record IDs, remove the one you don’t want, and then update the record with the modified array I’m afraid

[kuovonne]

Welcome back to the Airtable community!

Are the linked records in a different table?
Can you remove the user from the backlink field in the [Users] table? If there is a one-to-many relationship (versus a many-to-many relationship) this is usually the easier way.

If you have a many-to-many relationship, I recommend scripting. It is possible to have a non-scripting process that involves formula fields and multiple reads on the records. However, the non-scripting method would require splitting the logic up across multiple fields and possibly multiple automations, making the system harder to maintain.

[Joachim_Brindea]

Thank you but this is what I was not able to do.

[Joachim_Brindea · Accepted solution]

Thank you, I ended up finding a solution where I “rebuilt” the array by:

1. adding a find record step where I find all those who are linked but not the one I want to remove.
2. replacing the existing linked records with that new array.

Thank you for your help :slightly_smiling_face:

[climesumer]

Hi Joachim, could you share how you did this?

Context: I am trying to build an upvote functionality with Softr and Airtable:
I have three tables.
1: actions - creates a record each time a user is upvoting or removing an upvote from a product. 
2: users - 
3: Products - with a linked record field of all the users who upvoted this product. 
My upvoting automation already works: > New record is created in the activities table, the upvoted column in the products table is updated with the users name. 

I have troubles reversing that automation. 
I am thinking to setup 3 automations: 
1. Save user to a remove upvote column. + A a column that gives me the list updated list (upvotes - removed upvotes)
2. Add this list to a new table to save it. 
3. Replace old list, with new list and clear the removed upvote column.

- How can I only remove the one user from the linked record field, without removing them all?
- I am struggling with the formula to get the list of user without the one I need to remove (on a column/row level)
- Is it possible to turn a text string, into a separate linked users again?

Hopefully there is a simpler solution to this. Appreciate your help. Many thanks. 

[climesumer]

Hi Kuovonne, 
could you go into more detail of how this is done without scripting? My student pro plan does not yet support scripting. I explained my problem in the previous post here.
Many thanks