I need a non-comma value as a separator in the multiple choice field

[papparaziz]

I am trying to paste values that are separated by a non-comma separator (think | or ; ) but when I copy paste this into a multiple select cell it gets pasted as one long string value as Airtable doesn’t recognize different values if they are not comma separated. Does airtable support any other non-comma separator that it identifies when I am copy-pasting? I can’t use the comma in the original string as the separator between words.

[Mike_McLaughlin]

can you format your list into a ‘new line’ separated list, i.e. like a column in excel?

My quick and dirty way to add values to a multi-select field is paste a column list of values from excel or google sheets into the corresponding field in Airtable. It will add the values you are pasting in to the multi-select list Field even if you delete the pasted in records afterwards.

[papparaziz]

Thanks Mike, but I’m afraid that’s too much work on our end. Currently the data is exported having a “|” as a differentiator and I do a Find and Replace in excel before pasting it into Airtable. I was wondering if there was a way I could avoid the Find and Replace step and directly import the values with a non-comma separator like the “|” and have it work just like the comma. Thank you for your response nonetheless :slightly_smiling_face: !

[JonathanBowen]

Hi @papparaziz - not sure if this helps, but might be little quicker than find and replace in Excel.

Copy your pipe-separated string into the first field. The second field uses a substitute formula to replace pipes with commas. Then copy the result into the multi-choice field.

So, copy + paste, copy + paste, rather than find and replace, copy + paste. Not much in it tbh, but might be a marginally quicker set of keystrokes.

The formula is:

SUBSTITUTE({Paste Here}, '|', ',')

JB

[papparaziz]

Yes that does help a lot actually, I’ll simply create another View where I can hide the first two columns! Thank you!!