How do I create a Select List with links - Without creating a new table

[Fran_Vidicek]

I want to have a regular Select List column that has text list values that are also clickable as hyperlinks.

Without creating a new table.

This formula doesn’t work:
List(Hyperlink(https://coda.io/d/_dD4ai-v91HX/thisRow.Formula-Fundamentals_suZn0, Formula Fundamentals))

[Piet_Strydom]

Hi Fran,

A side question - why not a look-up table? That has several advantages over a select list?

Regards
Piet

[Fran_Vidicek]

I don’t like having a whole another table for something simple.
I don’t need any other features that are available with using a look-up table.

So I guess it all just comes down to my tendency towards excessive orderliness and perfectionism. Even though I can create that table and put it on a different hidden page, it still takes up place in my mind… I know it exists and it shouldn’t…

[Piet_Strydom]

HI Fran,

What I did find is that if you cut and paste a “link” into the select list field, it does work.

In other words, typing cnn.com into the select list will not work. But if you write cnn.com on the canvas, let Coda convert it to a URL, and then cut and paste it, Coda will actually keep the “link information”. Or just cut and paste from the browser’s URL bar.

I do not know how many URL you will have. If not too many URL’s then this could work for you.
Especially if you want to rename 'https://community.coda.io/t/how-do-i-create-a-select-list-with-links-without-creating-a-new-table/33355/2 to Piet’s response.

On the other hand, try and reframe the way you think about the look-up table. Rather than worry about the superfluous functionality that you are not using, think of the fact that if you edit an entry in the select list, you need to individually edit all the rows that that value has been used in. If you use a lookup table, Coda will automatically rename all rows using the value that you edited.

Regards
Rambling Pete

[Paul_Danyliuk]

This doesn’t work perhaps because you forgot the "" quotes around your URL?

Honestly though, nothing wrong (and actually I advocate for it) with making tables even for simple selects. Even the “To do / Doing / Done” deserves a table if the doc is meant for the long run.

There’s one big benefit of a lookup vs a simple select. In select, the value in the cell is stored by the value (usually a text or a rich text like in your case). In lookup, the value is actually a row reference. So if you update your data in a table, references will keep pointing to the originally selected rows and surface the updated data. Selected text values won’t be updated though no matter how the list of options changes.

(Of course you can make a select list out of a list of rows and it will function just like lookup. You can be more flexible with the rows you include on the list but you’ll miss out on lookup chip formatting though)