Auto-linking records with conditionals

[Priscilla_Allen]

Is there a way I can add the same record twice in a linked record field? I’m building a product sales database. When I have 2 of the same item in a customer order, I can’t figure out how to add the same item twice in the order record. I’d rather not have to track each order item individually on it’s own row because it becomes difficult to calculate the shipping costs for each item in the same order.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[kuovonne · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Airtable community!

Airtable cannot link to the same record twice in the same field.

It sounds like you would need a junction table to hold the items in each order and the quantity of each item.

On the other hand, if ordering a second item is extremely rare, a workaround is to have a second record for the item in the products table. Airtable wouldn’t know that the items are really the same. The duplicate item can even have an identical name in Airtable (although I don’t recommend it).

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If this answers your question, please mark this post as the solution. Otherwise, could you please give a bit more details and a screen capture?

[Priscilla_Allen]

Two of the same items is rare, so I’ll go with your second recommendation to have a second record for the item in the products table.

Thanks so much for your help!