Selecting single select based on another select select column

[Curtis_Hall1]

I’m trying to setup a training list. I have primary and secondary categories. I want to select from the primary category and then have the option to select from the secondary categories based on the primary category.

How would I go about this?

[Rupert_Hoffsch1]

Hi @Curtis_Hall1, you want your secondary single select to be depending on (so changing based on) the choice in the first single select? That is not possible right now in Airtable. You would need to write a script / a script extension for that in my opinion.

[Curtis_Hall1]

Yep, that is exactly what I need.

Okay…I don’t have any experience in this kind of script.

[Nathaniel_Grano]

Hi @Curtis_Hall1 ,
Even with scripting or automation, there is no way in Airtable to do exactly what you are asking for: to have the set of possible options in a single-select change dynamically based on a value in another field.

If you have a relatively small number of options in “primary category”, you could workaround this by building a separate column for each type of subcategory:

For example, suppose your primary category options are Red, Blue, and Green.
Then you could create a “Red subtype” column, a “Blue subtype” column, and a Green “subtype” column. You could add a Formula column that shows the value from one of those three columns based on which primary is selected.

You could also build an input Form that hides or shows each subcategory field depending on what is in Primary category. So if you chose the Red primary category, the form would hide the Green and Blue subcategory fields and only show the Red subcategory fields.

Here’s what the table would look like:

and here’s the conditional form behavior:

[ScottWorld]

@Curtis_Hall1 You could use an external form tool that supports this, such as On2Air: Forms or MiniExtensions.com (and there might be a few more that support this), but that’s about it.

I would recommend sending an email to support@airtable.com to request this feature.

[Rupert_Hoffsch1]

If you would use a scripting block, you’d be able to make this work. @Nathaniel_Granor is correct that you can’t change the single select options itself, but in a scripting block you’d be able to limit the possible options based on a previous single select.

Exploring options via third party apps recommended by @ScottWorld might be the way to go.