How to create an Airtable view for unlinked records and non-partners?

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1

I’m trying to set up a special view in my Airtable. My table has a ‘Name’ column and a ‘Partner’ column that links to other names. I want to show two types of records:

  1. Those without any partners
  2. Those who aren’t listed as someone else’s partner

Is there a way to do this? I’ve tried playing around with filters, but I can’t figure out how to combine these two conditions.

Here’s a simple example of what I’m after:

Name     | Partner
---------------------
Alice    | (Empty)
Bob      | Charlie
Charlie  | (Empty)
David    | (Empty)

In this case, I’d want my view to show Alice, Charlie, and David. Alice and David because they have no partners, and Charlie because he’s not listed as anyone’s partner.

Any ideas on how to set this up? Thanks!

2

hey liamj, i think i got a solution for ya. try using a rollup field to count how many times each name appears as a partner. then filter ur view to show records where the partner field is empty OR the rollup count is 0. that should catch both cases ur lookin for. lmk if it works!

3

As someone who’s worked extensively with Airtable, I can offer a slightly different approach that might be more efficient. Instead of creating a new formula field, you could leverage the ‘Count’ function in a Rollup field.

Create a Rollup field called ‘Partner Count’ that counts the occurrences of each record in the Partner field. The formula would be COUNT(Partner).

Then, set up a view with two filters: one where Partner is empty, and another where Partner Count is 0. This method is particularly useful if you’re dealing with a large dataset, as it reduces the complexity of your table structure.

One thing to keep in mind: if you’re frequently updating your data, you might need to refresh the view to see the most current results. Airtable sometimes takes a moment to recalculate Rollup fields in larger tables.

Hope this helps streamline your process!

4

I’ve encountered a similar challenge in my Airtable projects. Here’s a method that should work:

Create a formula field, let’s call it ‘Unlinked Status’. Use this formula:

IF(AND(ISBLANK({Partner}), NOT(Partner)), ‘Unlinked’, ‘Linked’)

This checks if the Partner field is empty and if the record isn’t someone else’s partner.

Then, set up a view filter where ‘Unlinked Status’ is ‘Unlinked’. This should display exactly what you’re looking for.

One caveat: this method assumes your ‘Partner’ field is set up as a two-way link. If it’s not, you might need to adjust the approach slightly.