Linking one record to multiple records on another table with identical record IDs

[MEO]

Hello! I am trying to link records with the same ID and I can’t figure out how to do it in buik - only one by one which is impractical for my purposes.

Essentially, I have a table (“Forms”) that contains student usernames and the forms they submitted, and I’m using the username as the record ID, so multiple, identical record IDs exist for all the different forms a particular student submitted (i.e. Username1 - Form A, and Username 1 - Form B are listed in different rows). The ideal result I am picturing is that, in my main table, I could use a ‘link to another record’ field that links to the Forms table, I would paste the usernames in this field, and then I’d have a lookup field which would display all the forms that correspond to that username (i.e. for Username1’s linked record, the lookup field would display “Form A, Form B”). However, when I set this up, it’s only displaying the first form that exists in the Forms table, and it only works the way I want it to if I one by one add records to the link field and select the same username however many times it exists in the Forms table.

I hope this made sense. I appreciate any possible solutions.

[Kamille_Parks]

MEO:

identical record IDs

FYI: in Airtable, the “record ID” refers to something very specific, for which there are never duplicates. IF you want the actual record ID, add a Formula field with the RECORD_ID() function. The term you likely mean is “primary key” which is not often used in Airtable-speak, but is common in other database applications.

It sounds like you need to use an actually unique “primary key” (i.e. the real record ID, or a timestamp, or something else) for your Forms table, then make the Username field a Link to Record field pointing at a Users table. The Users table would have a Lookup summarizing all the form results for each user (if need be).

[TheTimeSavingCo · Accepted solution]

Hi @MEO, sounds like you might need to reorganize your base a bit to achieve the outcome you want, with the end product possibly looking something like this?

[MEO]

Ah you’re right, I definitely mean primary key. Thank you for clarifying.

Putting the Link to Record field in my Forms table instead of my Users table was the key to making this work, hooray! I ended up using the form name as the primary key so that the summary column in the Users table would display the actual names of the forms.

Thanks so much for your input!

[MEO]

Yes! This is it! I rearranged some things in my tables and put the Link to Record field in the Forms table instead of my main table, and made the form name the “primary key” like you showed. Thanks a million!

[Dominic_Whyte]

Another option to consider is using a form to create multiple records for free on Fillout. Instructions on how to do this here https://www.fillout.com/help/create-multiple-records-with-form