How to combine NOT operator with match condition in pyairtable formula

Other Questions Airtable
1

I’m working with pyairtable library to retrieve records from my Airtable database using Python. I have two separate formulas that work perfectly on their own, but I need help combining them into a single query.

The first formula filters records where a specific field equals a certain value. The second formula excludes records where another field is empty. I want to merge these conditions so I can get records that match both criteria at once.

Here’s what I have so far:

from pyairtable import Table
from pyairtable.formulas import match

table_instance = Table(my_api_key, database_id, table_name)

# First condition works
filter_formula = match({"category": "active"})
data = table_instance.all(formula=filter_formula, fields=['name'])

# Second condition also works  
filter_formula = "NOT({status}='')"
data = table_instance.all(formula=filter_formula, fields=['name'])

How can I create one formula that checks both category equals ‘active’ AND status is not empty?

2

Wrap both conditions in an AND() function. Since pyairtable’s match function creates proper Airtable formula syntax, you can combine it with raw formula strings.

Here’s what I do:

from pyairtable import Table
from pyairtable.formulas import match

table_instance = Table(my_api_key, database_id, table_name)

# Combine both conditions
match_condition = match({"category": "active"})
not_empty_condition = "NOT({status}='')"

filter_formula = f"AND({match_condition}, {not_empty_condition})"
data = table_instance.all(formula=filter_formula, fields=['name'])

I’ve done this tons of times building data pipelines. The trick is knowing that match() returns a string formula, so you can use it like any other formula piece.

For more complex formulas, this video really helped me understand Airtable formula basics:

Btw, you can swap AND() for OR() if you want records that meet either condition instead of both.

3

I ran into this same issue building a client dashboard. Skip the manual string construction - just import the AND function from pyairtable.formulas instead. Here’s what actually works:

from pyairtable import Table
from pyairtable.formulas import match, AND

table_instance = Table(my_api_key, database_id, table_name)

filter_formula = AND(
    match({"category": "active"}),
    "NOT({status}='')"
)

data = table_instance.all(formula=filter_formula, fields=['name'])

This kills the string formatting headaches and stays readable when you add more conditions. Bonus: pyairtable’s formula functions handle type conversion automatically, which is huge when you’re mixing different field types.

4

use pyairtable.formulas.AND instead of string formatting - way cleaner. filter_formula = AND(match({'category': 'active'}), 'NOT({status}='')') then pass it to table.all(). Skips the f-string mess and handles escaping better.

5

use AND() to combine: filter_formula = f"AND({match({'category': 'active'})}, NOT({{status}}=''))" then use that in table.all() call. should work perfectly!