Hey everyone, I’ve been using Notion for a while now and I’m curious about its database capabilities. I know Notion has tables that look a bit like MySQL tables, but I’m wondering if we can do more advanced stuff with them.
I’ve got two tables in my Notion workspace and I’m trying to figure out if I can link them up like in a real database. You know, things like left joins or inner joins? That would be super helpful for organizing my data.
I took a quick look at the Notion API docs but couldn’t find anything about join operations. Has anyone here managed to do something like this? Or does Notion have a different way of handling related data?
Any tips or workarounds would be great. Thanks!
As someone who’s been using Notion extensively for project management, I can say that while it’s not quite a full-fledged relational database, there are some clever workarounds.
I’ve found that using the ‘Relation’ property type is key. It lets you link entries between databases, which is sort of like a basic join. For instance, I have a ‘Projects’ database and a ‘Tasks’ database. Each task can be related to a project, creating a one-to-many relationship.
The ‘Rollup’ feature is also handy. It lets you pull in and aggregate data from related entries. It’s not as powerful as SQL aggregations, but it gets the job done for most use cases.
One limitation I’ve hit is the lack of many-to-many relationships. You can kind of fake it with multiple relation properties, but it’s not ideal.
For more complex operations, I’ve resorted to exporting data and using Python scripts. It’s a bit clunky, but it works when I need more advanced analysis.
Overall, Notion’s database features are more than enough for most organizational needs, but don’t expect it to replace a proper RDBMS.
While Notion’s database capabilities are impressive, they don’t quite match up to traditional relational databases when it comes to complex operations like joins. However, you can achieve similar results using Notion’s relation property type and rollup features.
The relation property allows you to link records between different databases, creating a form of foreign key relationship. You can then use rollups to aggregate data from the related database. This approach can mimic some aspects of join operations, though it’s not as flexible or powerful as true SQL joins.
For more advanced data manipulation, you might need to export your Notion data and process it externally using tools like Python or Excel. The Notion API can be useful for this, allowing you to programmatically access and manipulate your data.
Keep in mind that Notion is primarily designed for collaborative work and note-taking rather than heavy data processing. If you find yourself needing frequent complex database operations, you might want to consider using a dedicated database system alongside Notion.
notion’s cool but not a sql engine. relation stuff & rollups help mimic joins. for heavy use, export your data & use other tools. ideal for organizing ideas, not crunching numbers.