Combining data from many fields into one multiple select field

[Eli_Kent]

I’m importing a google spreadsheet of workers and their trades. The sheet has over 11,000 rows (each worker = 1 row). There are 40 trades. Each trade has its own column, and there is an “X” if the worker is skilled in that trade. I converted each “X” into the name of the trade that it represents. I now want to combine all of the columns for each worker into 1 multiple select field so that each worker has one field where it lists all of his/her trades.

Any ideas?

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the community, @Eli_Kent!

Here’s the trick to making this work:

If you create a field (a text field or a formula field) that has all the values you want separated by commas, and then you convert that field to a multiple-select field, Airtable will automatically put all the comma-separated fields into your value list for the multiple-select field.

So, if you’ve got 40 different fields in your system that each have the appropriate value in them, you’d want to combine all 40 fields into a single formula field like this:

{Field 1} & "," & {Field 2} & "," & {Field 3} & "," & {Field 4}

Keep going until you’ve reached all 40 fields.

Then, after you’ve successfully created the formula field, you can simply change that field to a multiple-select field, and Airtable will automatically create all the values for you AND keep all of your workers’ selections intact.

And, of course, you’ll be able to delete all 40 of those now-extraneous fields afterwards!

Hope this helps! If this answers your question, could you please mark this comment as the solution to your question? This will help other people who have a similar question. If not, please let me know what else you need help with! :slightly_smiling_face:

[Eli_Kent]

Worked like butter! Thank you!!!

[ScottWorld]

Yay! Happy to hear that! :slightly_smiling_face: