Only autonumber records if a checkbox in column has been ticked

[Nik_von_Pueckle]

I have a column that is a checkbox and would like to start capturing unique ID’s in numerical order (i.e. Autonumber) for records that have a tick in that checkbox. Is this possible?

[Alexey_Gusev]

Hi,
filter by checkbox, sort by ID.

[Nik_von_Pueckle]

Hm I mean conditional autonumbering. So that it only creates an ID (e.g. “1”) if a record has a checkbox ticked in another column. Currently every record autonumbered, but I am only using the ID of a subset of records and don’t want my IDs to become extremely long

[TheTimeSavingCo · Accepted solution]

Would have to use a script for this I’m afraid

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Edit: I’m wrong sorry, I figured out how to do it with an automation and without a script. Check out the working example here

Idea is that every time a record has it’s checkbox marked, we find all the records that have it marked, take that number, and update the original record with it

This means that if you ever uncheck/recheck a record with an existing ID it’ll break though, but the same pitfall applies to the Autonumber field, so eh

[Nik_von_Pueckle]

Hi Adam,

Thanks for your response. I think your solution may work for my issue but struggling to understand how to implement it so I’ve attached a screenshot of my issue to put it into context.

Row 1 is correct where there is a tick and an ID (1) but then I only want the next record on row 10 to populate, as it has a tick, with an ID (2) rather than having to capture IDs for all the unticked records.

Does that make sense?

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hmm, I think what I provided you with should solve your issue. You’ve duplicated the base I linked above to view the automations, right?

DM me a link to your base and I’ll see what I can do for you

[kuovonne]

Nik_von_Pueckler:

don’t want my IDs to become extremely long

Is this for aesthetic reasons or technical reasons? If it is just to make things look pretty, you could hide the autonumber field, and then have s formula field that only shows the number if the checkbox is selected.

[Nik_von_Pueckle]

Thanks Adam_C. Yes, I’ve looked at your automation and replicated it, but it doesn’t quite create the unique ID in increasing order e.g. (“0” for no checkbox, “1” for the first checkbox, “2” for second etc.)

Instead if just updates the record with a number that’s the length of the record. How do I turn this into an autonumber type output?

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hi Nik, ah, apologies, I think I may have misunderstood you then.

With reference to the gif and steps listed below, could you tell me exactly what you’d like to happen? I’ll suggest something once I fully understand what our goal is, apologies!

1. 6 records, all of them with checkbox unticked
2. Tick checkbox for record 1
3. Unique ID field updates to “1”
4. Tick checkbox for record 3
5. Unique ID field updates to “2”
6. Tick checkbox for record 5
7. Unique ID field updates to “3”

[Nik_von_Pueckle]

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m after! Amazing, Adam, thanks so much!

When I copy your automation, it doesn’t update to 1 or 2, but chooses 23 every time. How do I fix that? Assume its due to this bit in screenshot, even though its the same as what you have.