A linked record field allows you to represent the relationships between related records by creating links between them. This is particularly helpful when you have multiple tables of related items or concepts—for example, if you have a table of contacts and a table of companies, you can use a linked record field to link each contact to the company that they work for.
Linked record fields contain blue link tokens; each token represents the link from one record to another record. Clicking on the link will expand the record that has been linked to.
You'll definitely want to use a linked record field if:
- You have two tables of different types of items (e.g. books and authors), and you want to model the relationships between those two different types of items
- You want to access important information from another record in another table with a single click
- You want to avoid duplicating information across tables (which can lead to problems if you update it in one table but forget to update it elsewhere!) by using a lookup field
- You want to summarize information from another table using a rollup field
How to set up a linked record field
Linking existing tables of related records
Creating a new linked table using a linked record field
Linking and unlinking linked records
Allow linking to multiple records
Limit linked record selection to a view
How to use a linked record field
Lookup, count, and rollup fields
Linking to records in the same table
What a linked record field is
Basically, a linked record represents a relationship (a link!) between two different objects, ideas, or people.
Unlike a traditional spreadsheet, an Airtable base works like a relational database—which means that it's been designed from the ground up to represent the relationships between people, projects, ideas, and items. To represent these relationships, you use linked record fields, which link records in one table to records in another table (or the same table).
Linked record fields represent two-way relationships between records—for example, a linked record field called “Author(s)” in a table called “Books” doesn't just mean “This book was written by this author,” it also means “This author wrote this book.” Therefore, this means that linked record fields are reciprocal: whenever you create a linked record field in one table, another linked record field will be created in the table that you linked to. (The only exception to this is when you create a linked record field that links to its own table—see more on this below.)
If you delete a linked record field in one table (or change it to a different field type), the link gets broken and the field in the other table is converted to a single line text field.
If you want to learn more about how to model the different types of relationships that might exist in your base, try reading this beginner's guide to many-to-many relationships, which outlines the differences between one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships, and explains how to represent these relationships in Airtable.
How to set up a linked record field
To create a linked record field, you can use the field customization menu to convert an existing field into a linked record field. When creating a linked record field, you can either link to an existing table or create a new table from scratch.
Linking existing tables of related records
If you already have two separate tables of related records, you can link them together with just a couple of clicks. Watch the video below to learn how, or read on for instructions.
First, you'll need a table with a primary field that corresponds with the values in another table. In this example, we have a table of authors with a single line text field containing the titles of books written by those authors, and a table of books.
Before making any field type conversions, make sure that separate values (so, in this example, separate book titles) are separated by commas—that's how Airtable parses whether or not there are multiple values in a cell. If you have any values that have a comma in them, wrap those values in double quotation marks to prevent commas acting as separators.
For example, the value The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in a single line text field will create three separate links when converted into a linked record field: The Lion, the Witch, and and the Wardrobe. However, if you include double quotation marks around the value, like ”The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, you'll get just one link, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Next, go to the field customization menu and select the Customize field type option. Then choose Link to another record, and select the table you'd like to link records from. (In this example, we want the Books field in the Authors table to link to the Books table, so we select the Books table.) Once you're ready, click the Save button, which will convert the values in the field into links.
Doing this will also automatically create a linked record field in the table you linked to. The name of this field will default to the name of the table you linked from. (In this example, linking to the Books table from the Authors table creates a new linked record field in the Books table called "Authors.") Also note that if any of the values in the field you're converting into a linked record field don't already have a corresponding record in the table you're linking to, new records with the names of those values will be created automatically in the table you're linking to.
Creating a new linked table using a linked record field
When building your base, you might find yourself wanting to store more information related to the values in a single line text field or a select field. In these cases, you can convert that field into a new table that will be automatically populated and linked with your existing values. Learn how by watching this video, or read on for more information.
Suppose you're starting out with a table of authors, and you initially put the books written by each author in a single line text field. Eventually, you decide that you want to store more information relevant to each book (like its publication date, cover art, or a plot summary).
Before making any field type conversions, make sure that separate values (so, in this example, separate book titles) are separated by commas—that's how Airtable parses whether or not there are multiple values in a cell. If you have any values that have a comma in them, wrap those values in double quotation marks to prevent commas acting as separators.
For example, the value The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in a single line text field will create three separate links when converted into a linked record field: The Lion, the Witch, and and the Wardrobe. However, if you include double quotation marks around the value, like ”The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, you'll get just one link, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Next, go to the field customization menu and select the Customize field type option. Then choose Link to another record. Instead of picking an existing table to link records from, select the + Create a new table option. The customization dialog will give you the option to pick a name for the new table. By default, the new table name will be the name of the field you're converting, but you can choose to give your new table a different name if you'd like.
Once you're ready, click the Save button, which will convert the values in the field into links. This will also create a new table.
If you go over to this newly created table, you'll see that it has two fields: the primary field, which will be a single line text field with the names of the newly created linked records, and a linked record field which links back to the original field in the original table.
Linking and unlinking linked records
Once your linked record field has been created, you can create links using the linked record picker. To bring up the linked record picker while in a grid view, click the + button inside a cell.
To bring up the linked record picker while in an expanded record, click the + Link to a record from [table] button.
Either way, when you bring up the linked record picker, you'll see a list of records that you can link to. You can search through the list to find the desired records more quickly, or you can click the + Add new record button to create a new record in the linked table.
To unlink a record while in a grid view, click into a cell in a linked record field, then click the X on the linked record you'd like to unlink. To unlink a record while in an expanded record, click the ⊝ button in the corner of the linked record you'd like to unlink.
When setting up a linked record field with the field customization menu, there are a couple of additional options that allow you to configure how you can use the linked record picker.
Allow linking to multiple records
When this toggle is unchecked, if you've already added one linked record to a cell, you won't see the + buttons that allow you to easily bring up the linked record picker. This makes it easier to ensure that you don't accidentally add multiple links when you're trying to represent one-to-one relationships.
Note that if you toggle off Allow linking to multiple records in a field where multiple records have already been linked, no records will become unlinked.
Limit linked record selection to a view
When this toggle is checked, if you open up the linked record picker, you'll only see the records that are visible in a view you've specified from a dropdown menu. This means that you can use filters in another table to make it easier to find and add relevant linked records. You could use this to filter out archived projects, passed deadlines, or inactive teammates from the linked record picker, making it easier to find the records you need quickly.
If you try and change the filters for a view that's being used to limit record selection elsewhere, you'll see a notice telling you which linked record field from which table is using this view's filters.
If you have limited record selection to a view in a linked record field, and you want to use this same linked record field in a form, you have the option to override the limitation and limit linked record selection to a different view.
A couple of other things to note about this feature:
- If you toggle on Limit linked record selection to a view in a field where there are already linked records, this will not have any effect on the existing records.
- This feature does not have any effect on any new linked records that are created using the linked record picker.
How to use a linked record field
Expand record from link
A linked record field contains zero, one, or more blue linked record tokens in each cell. Clicking on one of these tokens will open the expanded record version of the record being linked to. This makes it easy to quickly reference relevant information from another table.
If you click on another linked record within an expanded record, you'll open another expanded record on top of the record you've already expanded.
Lookup, count, and rollup fields
Linked records are required to use three special computed field types: lookup, count, and rollup.
- A lookup field returns the value(s) for a specific field from a linked record (or records). You can use this to bring information from one table into another table without duplicating it, so that your information will always be up-to-date in all tables.
- A count field returns the number of linked records in a linked record field.
- A rollup field is a bit like a lookup, but instead of just returning the value(s) from a field in a linked record, it also performs a calculation on those values—like summing together all the values from the linked records, or returning only the maximum value from the linked records.
Linking to records in the same table
In certain situations, you might want to create a linked record field that allows you to link to records in the same table. This typically happens if you're trying to represent relationships between items of the same kind—like relationships between people, or the relationships between different tasks. If this is the case, you can just select the current table when setting up the linked record field. This will set up a self-linking linked record field.
Since you're linking to the same table in which the linked record field already exists, this does not create a reciprocal linked record field. This is the only case in which creating a linked record field doesn't automatically create a second linked record field in another table.