Excel - INDEX / MATCH equivalent

[Sean_Fogelman]

What is the excel index match equivalent in a table?

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

There isn’t an INDEX / MATCH equivalent in Airtable. Airtable is a database, so cells don’t have the kind of horizontal/vertical spatial relationship to each other that they have in Excel. Formula’s in Airtable don’t refer to cells, they refer to fields.

[Kamille_Parks]

Jeremy’s explanation is correct. What are you trying to accomplish with INDEX/MATCH?

[J_W_C]

I’d love to know the answer as well. In my case, I have an external-facing and internal-facing table. I want the external table to just be a subset of the internal table (fewer columns), but want it to automatically pull the table contents in for select columns based on the same primary fields between the two tables, instead of just copy-pasting. In excel, you would just index-match based on the primary fields - any way to do it on Airtable?

[Kamille_Parks · Accepted solution]

Well in your case its advised to just make a new view with certain columns hidden. Making a new table seems extraneous.

[Sean_Fogelman]

But to JWC’s point, can you have an external view that only allows certain parties to see that view and how do I link it to the base data tab so it updates as the underlying data does?

[Kamille_Parks]

You can share a particular view via a link, anyone with that link can view it:

Airtable - Support

Creating a base share link or a view share link

As an alternative to adding individual people as collaborators, you can create a read-only share link that allows anyone with the link to view (but not edit) an Airtable base or a specific table vi...

Views don’t require any maintenance to remain updated, they always show live data.

[Ed_Goble1]

All,

I have a similar question to the above - understand the database vs spreadsheet point but I still have a situation where the Excel Index/Match functionality comes to mind. To boil it down:

Table 1: Deliveries
Fields: Delivery ID (number), Postcode (text)    (note - Postcode is populated by a script from elsewhere)

Table 2: Locations
Fields: Description (text), Postcode (text)

I'd like to be able to add a new third column to Table 1, which would 'look up' the "Description" of that location (from Table 2) based on the postcode (from Table 2).

I think the 'obvious' solution might be to change Table 2's primary field to 'Postcode, and then a more straightforward linked table relationship would be fine. However, this field also gets linked elsewhere in other parts of the base and so it's not an option to switch those primary fields.

Any ideas gratefully appreciated!