Update table with imported Spreadsheet

[Daniel_Molter]

I have a table that was created by importing a spreadsheet, Can I update this table by importing an updated version of the spreadsheet that I used to create the table initially. I get information from an MRP system that can out put to Excel. I use Airtable as a way to easily manage this data for myself and others. I have sent shared links to others so they can access this data as well. If simply created another table from the imported data the links I sent to the others would no longer work. Therefore, it would be better to update the original data. Or would I need to erase all the data, import the new spreadsheet in another table, the copy and paste all the data back to the original table.

[John_Beaudoin]

Daniel

I have some possible suggestions:

1. If you are a premium user, there’s a CSV import tool in beta that would help you add new records to your existing table.

2. If you’re not a premium user (and the field structure of the table and the spreadsheet are identical):

• A - If you are only appending records, you can copy data from Excel and then paste these new records into your current table

• B - If you are updating and appending records, you can still copy the data from Excel and then paste directly in to the existing table, overwriting the data that currently resides there. Airtable would pop up a dialog box and you choose to expand the table to accommodate the new data.

But Solution 2B will only work for you if you are not changing data in the Airtable base. It’s not clear what you mean by “easily manage data.”

For instance, assuming:

Current Airtable table
Rec 1 Foghat, Bad Company, Foreigner
Rec 2 U2, REM, The Police
Rec 3 BoDeans, Feelies, The Replacements

Updated MRP/Excel data
Rec 1 Foghat, Bad Company, Heart
Rec 2 Lou Reed, REM, The Police
Rec 3 BoDeans, Tears for Fears, The Replacements
Rec 4 Plimsouls, Husker Du, NY Dolls

Cut and paste, overwriting existing data then leaves your airtable table:
Rec 1 Foghat, Bad Company, Heart
Rec 2 Lou Reed, REM, The Police
Rec 3 BoDeans, Tears for Fears, The Replacements
Rec 4 Plimsouls, Husker Du, NY Dolls

See this page for details:

Airtable - Support

Appending data to an existing table with copy and paste

Airtable's copy and paste functions (C and V) are one of the simplest ways to duplicate your data and fields. (To learn more about Airtable's other keyboard shortcuts, see this article.) Copy...

As always, you’d want to make a duplicate copy of the original table just in case something goes wrong…

JB

[Daniel_Molter]

John

Thank you for the response, when you refer to Premium do you mean Enterprise? I am at the Pro level, I don’t see Premium.

What I mean by managing the data, I feel Airtable is easier to do searches, grouping and filtering than Excel. I can also embed it as a link in a browser. Not all users have access to the MRP system. This is a kind of substitution.

I think the updating and appending will work for me. The only problem might be if there is a record that might come between two existing records. Most of this data is part numbers, Certain part numbers are assigned in blocks of numbers. There might be new numbers that get assigned later that would go between these block of numbers.

Example

Current
Part 01
Part 02
Part 03
Part 10
Part 11

New

Part 01
Part 02
Part 03
Part 04
Part 05
Part 10
Part 11

I would probably need to cut and paste the entire file to do this

Thank you again for the response

Dan

I liked seeing Foghat used in a example by the way

[John_Beaudoin]

Yes, I meant it was a premium feature, in beta. If you send a request to support to participate in the beta, you can get access to CSV import tool.

If you end up importing records that are out of “Part Number” order, you’ll need to apply a sort to the result.

Good luck and rock on!

[Tom_Parent]

I came here looking for almost the same exact thing.

I currently generate bill of materials data from a CAD package, CSV bring that into Excel where I then append MRP information. I have a procedure that works relatively well with the use of VBA macros I wrote to speed up the process. The data from CAD gets updated regularly and the procedure supports the adding and removing of parts (records).

I was hoping to switch over to using Airtable for the same benefits you mentioned. However, I’m still figuring out how to make it all work. It looks like the CSV importer only supports adding new records, NOT updating existing records.

@Daniel_Molter, any updates? Did you find a process that works for you?

Thanks,
Tom

[Moe]

If you would like to import data from a spreadsheet and add it in Airtable automatically, you can use our CSV importer extension. It allows you to fetch a CSV file URL and create new records or update the ones that already exist.

miniExtensions

Automatically Import CSVs into Airtable - miniExtensions

Auto import new records from a CSV URL. This extension supports scheduling to run regularly. Also, supports up to 10 CSVs.