Adding records when linked field

[Anders_Orwinger]

I have one table called “Artist list” contains a single line field called “Artist”. I have then linked this to a table called “Transport demands” also containing the field “Artist”.

I would like Table “Artist list” to be the main master data table. I would like to lock the opportunity to add new entries to “Artist list” by for example misspelling an artist name when adding new records in “Transport demands”.

Is this locking opportunity possible?

Thanks for you help!
(Im new to Airtable)

[Justin_Barrett]

Welcome to the community, @Anders_Orwinger! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: Let me rephrase your situation to see if I understand it correctly.

On your [Artist] table, you’ve listed various artists, one artist per record. Each record has (from the sound of it) only the primary field, which is just a single line text field named {Artist}.

Over in the [Transport Demands] table, you have another {Artist} field, which is a link field pointing to the [Artist] table. When adding links to artists, you want to ensure that the name is always spelled correctly, and not accidentally overridden by a misspelling from the user. Is that correct?

If so, then you have nothing to worry about. When linking to a record from another table, you’re literally looking up an existing item by its existing spelling, not recreating and overriding the item with your own spelling.

That said, once a record is linked, it’s possible for the user to open that linked record and edit its contents. However, when initially creating a link to another table’s record, the user is shown the record as it currently exists, and nothing can be changed until the link is made.

Does that help?

[Anders_Orwinger]

Thanks for you response @Justin_Barrett!

Let med be a little more precise.

1. Before misspelling Band 1 in “Transport demand” the Artist table only consists of one record (Band 1)
2. Flipping over to “Transport demand” table and adding a additional record. This time I misspelling Band 1 and instead writing Band 2. The Search function finds no correlating records in Artist table. A text stating "Add new record namned “Band 2"” is shown in the lover part of the search popup. I hit the add text.
3. Artist table now has two records. “Band 1” and “Band 2” due tio the misspelled Band 1.

Do you understand what I mean now? I more or less don’t want the possibility to push the button "Add new record namned “Band 2"”.

Hope this makes it a little more clear.

Best regards
Anders

[Justin_Barrett]

Thanks for the clarification, Anders. Unfortunately I don’t believe that this kind of restriction is possible directly within the Airtable application. However, if you were to build a form and require that all input to [Transport demand] occur through that form, this would work. Forms don’t allow the on-the-fly addition of new records. The only choice is to pick from existing options.