Pass variable in filterByFormula (Node.js)

[ronald_vonk_bin]

Hi, would anybody know how to pass the second variable (airtableField) in below function? The third variable (shopifyId) is accepted! The purpose is to return just 1 record.

Thanks in advance, Ronald

let shopifyId = '2418417139848'
checkAirtableId('Orders','Order id',shopifyId)

function checkAirtableId(airtableBase,airtableField,shopifyId) {
    let recordFound = base(airtableBase).select({
        filterByFormula: `${airtableField} = ${shopifyId}`
    }).firstPage(function(err,records) {
        if(err) {
            console.log(err);
            return;
        }
        return records[0]
    })
}

[Erin_OHern]

Hi Ronald,

Thanks for your question!

When using the filterByFormula parameter, you’ll want Airtable field names to be surrounded with curly braces in your formula. Assuming your airtableField variable is a field name, try adding those curly braces like so:

        filterByFormula: `{${airtableField}} = ${shopifyId}`

Let me know if that works, or if you’re still having issues!

[ronald_vonk_bin]

Thank you Erin, that works!
The only thing is…it only works if the shopifyId is a number (within quotation marks…so this is a string after all…), if I change this in a name like ‘ronald’, it doesn’t work anymore (which is unpractical for another application). The ‘Order id’ field is textfield, so this should not matter, right?

[Erin_OHern]

Hey @ronald.vonk_binthout!

ronald.vonk_binthout:

if I change this in a name like ‘ronald’, it doesn’t work anymore

Let’s take a step back and look at the Airtable formulas that are generated in both cases. When shopifyId is a number, the formula parameter becomes:
filterByFormula: {Order id} = 2418417139848

This formula {Order id} = 2418417139848 is a valid Airtable formula, and will return the value 1 for a record whose Order id field has the value 2418417139848.

If we change the code and set shopifyId to a text value, like this:
let shopifyId = 'ronald',
our Airtable formula then becomes {Order id} = ronald. This is not a valid Airtable formula, since it’s trying to treat “ronald” as a field name (but we don’t have a field named “ronald”), so we get an error. You can test out formulas in the Airtable UI to see how they behave:

In this case, we’ll need to change the formula to have quotes (single or double quotes, doesn’t matter) around the string we are trying to match:
{Order id} = "ronald"

You should be able to add these quotes in your template string like so:

filterByFormula: `{${airtableField}} = "${shopifyId}"`

And the good news is these quotes will work for both text and number strings! You don’t need them with numbers, but having them there won’t hurt.

[Binthout_BV]

That’s a very clear explanation, thank you very much Erin!