Select list from multiple tables

1

I’ve been doing my best to mimic a backlink feature (which has been implemented phenomenally well in Notion, I hate to say), and I’m making pretty decent headway.

As a part of this, I have found a way to create a select list that can draw from multiple tables. For instance, I have a “Companies” table, a “Contacts” table, a “Projects” table, and a “Notes” table. In my notes table, I create a multiple select list, and as select options, I enter the formula “=Companies, Contacts,Projects”. This allows a single dropdown where I can select any item from all three tables. However, I get a warning that says “Unexpected comma - Commas are only used to separate arguments to a function.” a the top of the column, but otherwise, this seems to work fine. This is all when using a table view.

The trouble starts when I switch to card view, which is how I’d like to view my Notes table. I can no longer select anything from this multiple select column. Anything I selected when in table view remains, but clicking the drop down when in the detail view of the individual note does nothing. I cannot add or delete any items, nor does the dropdown appear.

Seems like a glitch or bug. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

2

Can confirm this behaviour (and agree it’s unexpected).

To fix it, use =ListCombine(Companies,Contacts,Projects) for your select options to be more explicit. (“Hey Coda, make a new list that’s a combination of all of these lists”).

But also, be warned that your data modelling here feels… vaguely un-Coda-y. You might be totally fine, but spidey senses bristle a bit at mixing different row types in the same slot like that (mainly cause you might try to reference a sub-property of one of them in another column, and if you don’t know what type of object they are… and also you lose some Coda magic when your column type is Select List instead of a specific Lookup).

2 Likes