Parse specific records from a lookup field?

[kbob13]

Hi, new to Airtable and I'm trying to parse out specific records from a lookup field and have Airtable display them in a new column. In one table called "Downloads",  I have a lookup field called "Guests" that is pulling records from a separate table called "Guests". The lookup field returns the names of all the "Guests" for a given entry. There a multiple guests per each entry. In the Guests table there is a variety of data about each individual guest (demographics, affiliation type, etc.). In my Downloads table, I want to create a new column that displays all the Guests names of a certain type (e.g. only Guests that have "Affiliation Type" = "Media"). How can I do this in Airtable? My attempts to create a formula aren't working as I can't get Airtable to return the Guests names. 

Thanks!

[Soly]

Hi @kbob13! 

If I understand you correctly you want to have a display of the Guests names based on the Affiliation type they have. I may have figured out a way to display what you need

Following your description, I have replicated a draft of your table to start working on it :

Her is the Final result with all the names of Guests filtered by Affiliation types in the Downloads table:

And Downloads grouped by Affiliation types :

To accomplish this, you can use Views, Filters, Grouping and single select field types. Here are the different settings used to set up your Filters and Groups.

To group them by Affiliation types :

When you create new Grid Views you can filter them by Affiliation types :

As a new user of Airtable, I suggest some articles that I used and that may be useful while you work on your tables : 

Grouping records : https://support.airtable.com/docs/guide-to-grouped-records

Creating new Views : https://support.airtable.com/docs/how-to-create-a-view

Filtering records : https://support.airtable.com/docs/guide-to-filtering-records-using-conditions

Using Single Select fields : https://support.airtable.com/docs/single-select-field

I really hope this will help you set up your base and display the elements you want, or at least give you some clues on how to make it happen ! ☀️👍

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hm, this seems like something the conditional function for lookups might help with.  May I know what issues you faced while attempting to use it? 

[kbob13]

Thanks for the reply, Soly. So here's my issue. Most of the entries in the downloads table have more than one guests associated with them and only some of them have a "media" affiliation. I want to only display the guest names that have the "media" affiliation and not the others. So I want the Downloads table to look like the first attached screenshot and it's pulling from the second. Let me know what you think.

Thanks! 

[kbob13]

So my issue here has to do with the way these tables have been created. The downloads table is based on the episode name. Each episode has data like in the first attached screen shot. I want to display the guest affiliation the way I've mocked up in that photo. But the guest table is based on the guest name, like in the second screen shot. I need a way to link the episode names between these two tables and then only display the guest names that have the "media" affiliation. Also, most of the entries in the downloads table have more than one guests associated with them and only some of them have a "media" affiliation and some of the Guests have multiple affiliation types. Does that makes sense? Thanks!

[Soly]

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@kbob13 wrote:

[...]I want to only display the guest names that have the "media" affiliation and not the others.[...]

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I think that creating a view with a filter at the {Affiliation type} displays only the guest with the Affiliation type that you want. For this you have to create a separate Grid view, or use a conditional lookup as @TheTimeSavingCo suggested. If you want to use conditional lookup, follow the instructions in the "Add lookup conditions" section of this article .

Below are screenshots of what can be done with filtered views :

Guests table view only showing only Guests with Affiliation type "Media" :

Downloads table view only showing only Guests with Affiliation type "Media" :

I hope that either of these methods would be of assistance to you.