Help

Need help ASAP with circular reference error when putting formula in primary field

Topic Labels: Data Formulas Views
1109 1
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Cynthia_C
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I am trying to put a formula I pulled together in the primary field, but get the following error "Sorry, there was a problem saving this field. Can’t save field because it causes a circular reference".  

Back story, I am using one tab to house all the event details. I am using the nesting feature to pull through things I need for all the sperate views (agenda, session intake, speaker details, ect.), where I would usually use separate tabs for each of these things.

Here is the formula that I have pulled together. Depending on what Is selected in the Content Track field it will pull a particular reference field. I want to use this formula in the primary field, but even if I remove the "for column 1" field I still get the circular reference error.  

Any one have any suggestions? 

Airtable formula .png

 

 

 

 

<--- THIS IS MY FORMULA

 

 

 

 

Here is a snapshot of some of the fields. [ Pink highlight I want to pull the formula I created and that works in the second field "for column 1" (blue outline). The yellow outlined area are the fields I have nested within the tab.]

Screenshot 2023-12-27 093039.png

 

 

 

 

 

@airtableformula 

 

 

1 Reply 1

You are getting a circular reference because the primary field value is used by the linked record field, and you are using values from the linked record field in the formula.

There is no way to use only formulas to get around the circular reference. One option is to create a gap in the circular logic and then manually bridge that gap. For example, you could turn your primary field into an editable field, and then use an automation to copy over the value of the formula field into the editable primary field when the two are different (as determined by another formula). If you go this route, you might want to set the permissions for the editable primary field so that it can only be set by automations to avoid accidental changes.