Jun 22, 2018 12:15 AM
If I select multiple fields (columns) and cmd-click one of them, it narrows the selection to that one field. If I select multiple fields and go to the dropdown for one, it narrows the selection to that one field. How do I delete multiple fields at once rather than having to go through them one by one? This seems like incredibly basic spreadsheet functionality and I’m puzzled that I can’t find it.
Jun 22, 2018 06:50 AM
I think you can’t. Maybe you could ask for it in the Feature Request category.
Feb 21, 2019 09:53 AM
Surely this is available? Like Rose says it’s basic spreadsheet functionality!!
Feb 21, 2019 04:12 PM
I tried doing this with adjacent columns in chrome on Windows using Shift+click, and it actually froze my browser for 30 seconds consistently… Also when it came unfrozen, it didn’t actually multi-select.
Feb 21, 2019 05:28 PM
There are lots of basic spreadsheet functions not available in Airtable because it’s not a spreadsheet. It’s a database. The two share some similar features, and look extremely similar in a grid view, but there are important core differences between them in how data is stored, managed, looked up, etc. Yes, it would be nice to be able to delete multiple fields at once, but I wouldn’t consider it a must-have feature.
Jul 08, 2020 09:26 AM
I just imported a spreadsheet which apparently had 500 empty columns, so they all imported as well. I cannot delete them one by one. I guess the only way to get rid of them is to delete them in the original spreadsheet and reimport?
Jul 08, 2020 11:31 AM
Another option is to arrange the columns that you want to keep so that they are together, and then copy just those columns to a new table. Then you can delete the original table.
Jul 08, 2020 02:45 PM
Can’t you import the file again without the empty columns?
Jul 14, 2020 06:35 PM
The main issue here is that you need a different program to get the job done.
Jul 12, 2021 06:34 AM
This really still isn’t a feature? It is really needed.
Aug 12, 2021 02:06 AM
Need this feature! it’s been 3 yrs! @Airtable
Aug 29, 2021 10:57 AM
I generally agree with Michael’s comments, except that in this case, it becomes a must have due to the limitations of the import feature. Importing Excel files can results in hundreds of unnecessary columns which make the data unmanageable due to the absence of this feature.
Nov 28, 2021 03:32 PM
Would love this feature.
Mar 25, 2022 03:26 PM
I absolutely understand that deleting fields is scary and usually not good- data loss is a BFD. I had a million trillion lookup fields that I didn’t need due to the way my base was originally set up. Deleting a million trillion fields individually is a huge pain, and since they’re lookup fields, no data loss is happening. Hiding them isn’t good hygiene.
Apr 01, 2022 02:53 AM
Hey all,
I had the same problem and found a workaround:
Your table should have only the fields you wanted to keep.
Not as easy as it could be in Excel or Sheet, but still, you can delete hundreds of fields quickly.
I tried with a small table, I don’t know if this works well if you have thousands of records and hundreds of fields.
Tell me if it works for you!
Jan 18, 2023 06:24 PM
Until Airtable or another entity develops a feature or plugin that can take care of this task, here is what I just did and would suggest, which may prove to be the simplest and quickest way: