Update tags on a bulk upload without replacing the ones that are already there
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Hello -
We have a table of home improvement companies and we use the multiple select feature to indicate what services they offer. There are 82 services under the select feature and we add as many as the company does.
For example, Best Painting is tagged for "Interior Painting" "Exterior Painting" etc.
During a bulk upload, we use the website as a unique ID, and we want to add services to existing companies without replacing their old ones.
Best Painting is on our bulk upload list, and we want to add "Cabinet Painting" to their services. When we do this using the CSV extension, it always clears and replaces the existing services. We have merge records toggled on and it will say "1 record will be updated" - but it always replaces instead of adds.
Any tips?
I can think of at least 3 ways to do this off the top of my head:
1. Dan’s approach above should work, and you don’t have to use external apps to make it happen. You can stick with Airtable's automations, but you'll just need to create that extra table that Dan was talking about.
2. A similar approach would be to merge your data into the existing table, but bring your services into a brand new field, and then use Dan's technique of merging the 2 fields together with an Airtable automation afterwards.
3. You can also drop your CSV file into a cloud folder, and then have Make’s CSV modules automatically import and merge the data for you by using the Airtable Upsert Module.
I demonstrate this entire process step-by-step on this Airtable podcast episode.
However, when you get to your multi-select field, you’re diving into the realm of working with arrays, because multi-select fields are arrays.
I discuss working with arrays on this Airtable podcast episode, but the screenshot below will show you how to merge the old values with the new values, while still accounting for the fact that some rows might be brand new so they might not have an old value.
This screenshot translates to: "If the Services array is previously empty (because it's a brand new record that you're adding into Airtable), then just insert the value from column 3 of your CSV file into the services field. Otherwise, add the new services into the existing services array, and get rid of any duplicate values within the array."
p.s. If your company has a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld
