Show Name not number

[Susie_Cornelius]

HI all! I could really use your help please. I have a column that I call “Sponsor” that is a value of a number like 12345 (this is imported from a spreadsheet) but instead of showing 12345 (cause I can’t remember who that is) I’d like it to show a name like Sally Brown. There are probably 10 unique “Sponsor” numbers that I need to correlate with 10 different names.

[ScottWorld]

You could create a formula using the SWITCH function that would look something like this:

SWITCH(
{Sponsor},
"12345","Sally Brown",
"67890","Jim Richards",
"11111","John Smith",
"22222","Tina Johnson",
"Not a Valid Sponsor Number"
)

Alternatively, you could create another table of your sponsors, and manually link a sponsor to each record by creating a “linked record field”. That would be ideal if you need an entire table to keep track of your sponsors + detailed information related to each sponsor.

[Susie_Cornelius]

Thank you! Yes I ideally wanted to create the linked record field but I couldn’t figure that one out either…I have another table with each Sponsor name (column A) and their unique # in column B. Ideally I would like the Sponsor # column on the main table to show the name (from the second table) instead of the number. If you could share how to do the link field I would really appreciate it.

[ScottWorld]

Airtable doesn’t support AUTOMATIC linking of fields in Airtable. So you can’t have Airtable automatically link to your sponsors based on their numbers.

But you could MANUALLY link to your sponsors.

Just create a linked record field to the sponsors table, and that’s it! Then, you will be able to MANUALLY choose a sponsor name for each record.

[Susie_Cornelius]

Thank you so much! I will research on how to do this. I tried earlier and it just didn’t work but I am sure the answer is out there somewhere - lol! Thanks again for helping out a newbie :slightly_smiling_face:

[ScottWorld]

I just gave you the answer. You just create a new field in your table that is a “link to another record” field. Then, choose the “sponsors” table as your linked table. That’s all you need to do.

[Susie_Cornelius]

ScottWorld:

SWITCH(
{Sponsor},
"12345","Sally Brown",
"67890","Jim Richards",
"11111","John Smith",
"22222","Tina Johnson",
"Not a Valid Sponsor Number"
)

I copied your example and pasted it in my formula box, only changing the numbers and the names and when I click Save and then Convert I get this error: Sorry, there was a problem saving this field. Can’t save field because it causes a circular reference
Any ideas on what I did incorrectly?

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

You need to leave the sponsor field alone, and create a new formula field with a new name.

[Susie_Cornelius]

Thank you!!! (it worked!) I know teaching old dogs new tricks is frustrating but I appreciate you very much!

[ScottWorld]

You’re welcome! Glad I could help! :slightly_smiling_face: If you don’t mind, could you please mark my comment above as the solution to your question? This will help other people who have a similar question in the future. :slightly_smiling_face: