Advanced rules for data input and validation

[Davide_Cencini]

Hi, I discovered Airtable just a few weeks ago and instantly fell in love with this application. It’s so cool! I am still new to it, but I’m learning so much.
However, as a former Access user, I’m surprised it doesn’t feature almost any advanced rules for data input and validation in fields. I’m even more surprised that so very few people are asking for them.
Data validation is important. For a solid database, it’s a core feature. Say I want to record a customer’s IBAN for money transfers. An IBAN always has exactly 27 characters; it’s not all right if someone by mistake inputs 25 or 28 characters or puts spaces into it. I need to set the IBAN field’s lenght to 27 characters and request that you fill out those 27 characters, not one less, not one more!
Same goes for zip/postal codes, or tax codes. Validation rules are needed for such fields. A lot of stuff can get messed up if this kind of data is not recorded correctly, such as payments, shipments, fees. It’s a serious matter!
Phone numbers and email fields should be validated, too, because they should not accept invalid characters.
I should be able to set Date fields to accept only certain ranges of data. Such as: “you cannot input a delivery date that is before today”.
I can’t even find such a thing as setting a field to “required”.
Even though the application is fantastic, these shortcomings are a major kickback for Airtable. Please consider introducing these features, I’m sure many users will be grateful!
As I said, I am new to the application so pardon me if I’ve said something wrong or I missed out on issues that have already been addressed.
Love ️

[Bobby_Caudill]

My team has been using Airtable now since the beginning of the year. We have a somewhat sophisticated content/project management app created - somewhat, because, we’ve been suffering a ton of data issues.

Not having validations and required fields is creating serious integrity issues for us. Given that Airtable, based on a lack of any substantive response to this thread for over a year, seems to be unwilling/unable to comment, I am forced to seek alternatives. For as much as I love this platform, we cannot continue to suffer the chaos that comes from a lack of what I consider “table stakes” functionality. And, solving this using input forms is not an acceptable solution.

Airtable, if there are plans in the works, and you just can’t speak of them in this forum, please contact me directly. I would love to continue to use this tool if possible.

Thank you!

[Bill_Hall]

Agreed. I have signed up for a trial today. I will probably dropping Airtable straight away because of this.

[Brad_Laney]

Chiming in again in hopes that more frequency will get Airtable’s attention. -Brad

[Baden_Appleyar1]

Yes! This is a must have for anything beyond the most basic form use cases.

[Massimiliano_Cr]

Same problem here, if I have to write a custom form by myself then it doesn’t make any sense anymore to use Airtable

[Lewis_Gunter]

Love this idea and would be really handy. +1 to the Airtable mods + product team on the data validation request!!

[Abraham_Bochner]

So what will you use instead of Airtable?

[Fahad_alahmadi]

we are in January 2020 and nothing so far

[Kostiantyn_Plak]

Data validation is very important for freetext input, lacking of validation stops us from using Airtable as database-as-spreadsheet service.

[Colin_Rathbun]

I want data validation too.