Product suggestion: Lookup fields from multiple tables away

[ScottWorld]

This thread inspired me to make this product suggestion, which is a standard feature of most database systems:

Currently, lookup fields can only lookup information from one DIRECTLY-CONNECTED TABLE.

But often times, we want to lookup information from a table that is “multiple tables away”.

Even if all those multiple tables are linked to each other via a specific “path“, the field that we want to lookup still has to be continually looked up through every single table along the path.

In other words, we have to keep recreating the same lookup field over & over again for each table along the “path” until we get to the current table — in order to “pull the information” through multiple tables.

However, if all the tables are already linked to each other, we should simply be able to specify the “path” from our current table to the other table, and then we could instantly lookup a field from that other table to our current table, even if that other table is multiple tables away.

In other words, we should be able to instantly lookup a field from “multiple tables away”, instead of only being able to pull in data from the one directly-connected table.

If this sounds confusing, I would take a look at how FileMaker Pro accomplishes this. They make the concept very easy & very simple to understand.

[Paul_Warren]

Yes, yes, yes 1000x over!! Luckily, I only have to create a single base for my organization, so this annoyance doesn’t come up as often any more, but I’ve still had to create dozens of unnecessary lookups for this exact problem.

This can also be a problem for new users. When I first used Airtable, I thought it could not be done. That values could only be looked up from a single table away. It took awhile before I realized I could chain the lookups like this.