How can I make a lookup field show only unique results?

[Dapp_M]

The result I am looking for is similar to the ARRAYUNIQUE function for a Rollup field. However, the results are a link to another table, and it seems that using a rollup can only show text results as opposed to clickable records. How can I make lookup field show only unique results, or make the unique results of a rollup field clickable?

[Caleb_Williams]

Hi David,
I did the Rollup + ArrayUnique{} and got text-only uniques as you pointed out. Then I changed the field type to Link Records and voila – the text now links.

[David_Krizan]

I know that that works, but what I really want here is to set a Lookup field that’s looking-up a Linked Record field in another Linked Record to only display unique fields as clickable linked records. Right now this works except the ability to display linked records (every linked record – including duplicates – is displayed). If there was simply a “Only display unique linked records” switch that would display when you’re looking up a linked record field, this would work.

I want to keep it how it currently works except having the ability to remove duplicates (showing duplicates here provides no value to me, but the converse would be incredibly valuable for many use cases).

[Caleb_Williams]

What’s the advantage of using Lookup instead of Rollup?

[David_Krizan]

They’re two different field types with their own pros and cons, but that’s a whole other topic altogether.

The advantage of a Lookup field in this instance is that looking-up up another Linked Record field will display the data in the typical clickable Linked Record bubble vs. the stripped-down/non-clickable string data that will come back in a Rollup field.

Difference

• The Lookup displays the format I want here (clickable Linked Records), but has redundant values which are useless in this context.
  *The Rollup displays the data I want here (by using the “ARRAYUNIQUE(values)” function), but the data is just text and is not clickable/linked to the actual Linked Records.
• What I want is elements of both; I want clickable Linked Records via the Lookup as this field currently allows, but I simply want an option to filter out duplicate Linked Records (basically the ability to apply the “ARRAYUNIQUE(values)” function here).

I’ve personally come across over a dozen use cases where I want this; conversely, I haven’t had a single use case where I actually wanted to display duplicate Linked Records.

[Kellan_Baker]

@David_Krizan has there been any movement on this from Airtable since this discussion was last live?

[David_Krizan]

Not as of yet. This has actually prevented me from using Airtable for a few use cases, so I really hope this common sense feature is added soon.

[Jose_Duarte]

I’ve tried this and the text does turn to linked records just as Lookups, and only the unique values remain - but in my case adding a new value that would cause another unique value to show does not work. The list of records is now static and not “rolled up” from existing records.

Really wish this was a feature. A simple toggle like it was proposed would be amazing.

[Mamoon_Tayih]

Agree with the Unique toggle feature, very important. Would be great to push for this, seems like a smiple win for both sides!

[Adam_Johnson]

Here is a video I made demonstrating the Rollup feature that helps return only the unique results in Lookup: https://youtu.be/MiyQQxSx7iQ
Thanks to @David_Krizan for the solution.

[Steven_Benders]

+1 for this feature - also seems like a no brainer to only show a single linked record when doing a lookup (while preserving the interactivity of the link to that record)