Airtable - jeez! they make it difficult!

[Geoff_Warburton]

Absolute Beginner here - still struggling to make Airtable do what I want. So here I am - ONE YEAR later after my first post here, and I am not much further forward in my use and comprehension of Airtable.

Admittedly, I have not been continuously attempting to learn Airtable in all that time, but the interface really intrigues me and all the examples make it look really easy to master and the fact is - it isn't!  Being a retired database developer, I am not exactly new to the concept!

However, I have just spent an hour trying to get a formula in an Airtable base record that gives me what I want - simple - you would think, but no - not for me!

All I am trying to do is insert today's date when a status field in the record changes to a certain value.  I've learned that I can use the function today() in a formula field to achieve this. According to the "reference material", today() only returns a date - Not so as far as I can see!  I cannot find any definition description of the function today() to discover what I'm doing wrong!

My formula is 

IF({Summons Status}="Received",TODAY(),"")

The result I get from this is

23-07-31T00.00.00.000Z

How I go from the above value to a UK version of today's date, 23/07/2023, completely escapes me and is incongruous with the explanation that today() only returns a date (with no time component).

Any help would be appreciated before I once more get so frustrated I give it all up and wait another year before I try again.

Thanks,

Geoff

[Geoff_Warburton]

I will try the Kuvonne solution and report back. Thanks.

[Geoff_Warburton]

OK - I now have a field called "Summons Received Date with the formula

IF({Summons Status}="Received",DATETIME_FORMAT({Status LMD},"DD/MM/YYYY"))

where Summons Status can be "Not Received", "Received", "Awaiting Amendment" or "Processed" and Status LMD is the Last Modified Date of the Summons Status field.

This works well - to a point.  My next issue is to make sure that the Received date is not overwritten when the Status changes.  I want the date to remain.  Currently, if I select any other status, the date disappears.  I want the date to disappear if I revert back to "Not Received", but changing the status to "Awaiting Amendment" or "Processed" should not change the "Received date".  Is that do-able?

Thanks,

Geoff

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Yeah, it can get kind of confusing.  I've set something up here for you to check out, and you should be able to view the automation itself to replicate it

[Geoff_Warburton]

Sorry for the delay in responding.  Thank you for your example.  However, I cannot update it or run the automation so I have no idea what it does or who it related to my problem?

Thanks,

Geoff

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hi Geoff, yeah, that automation is set up in my own base so you can't update it or run it.  It's set up as an example of how to solve the problem (I think!) you're having, and you can view the automation and how it's set up so that you can build it in your own base

Apologies if it doesn't solve your problem!

[Geoff_Warburton]

Hi all,

Many thanks for your help with all of this, but I'm afraid I have gotten too frustrated with the shortcomings of Airtable to do even a simple task - something that would have taken me 5 minutes in my usual database development platform.

Maybe it's my inexperience with Airtable and perhaps I'm not using the right tools, but the Airtable Help System is not the easiest to use and it is difficult to find help when you need it, to solve specific issues.

My simple task was to create a table that tracked the receipt and disposition of certain documents.  I had a Status field that was a single select dropdown of "Not Received", "Received", "Awaiting Amendment" and "Processed".  I wanted to record, in another field,  a one-time date when the document was "Received" (when the Status was changed to "Received") and wanted this date to remain, even when changing the status to something else. 

It appears, from my efforts, and those who have assisted on this post, that this is not possible. I am very disappointed and had hoped to be able to make use of Airtable, but it seems not.

Thanks all for your help.

Geoff