Learn Airtable scripting #1: basics & removing duplicates with Giovanni Briggs

Welcome to Learn Airtable scripting a 4 part series where you'll learn the basics of writing scripting in Airtable.

In part 1, Gio teaches us (and me!) the basics of how to write scripts in Airtable. We write a script to identify duplicates in a table. Through that script we cover how to read data from an Airtable base, identify records that match certain criteria and update any records in a table!

// RESOURCES: Links to the whole series:

// KEEP LEARNING

// ABOUT ME
Aron here! I started AATT to help you create workflows and automations so you can focus on the stuff that matters. I am a Sr. Community Product Educator at Webflow and formerly of Airtable's Education Team.

// CHAPTERS
0:00 Teacher intro: who is Giovanni Briggs?
2:14 Student intro: who is Aron Korenblit?
3:44 Why learn Airtable scripting & objectives for the series?
6:44 Usecase: removing duplicates on form submission
11:45 Installing & overview of the scripting app
13:44 Script outline
16:34 Step 1: Read data from the Attendees table
27:14 Step 2: Identify duplicates in our Attendees table
49:44 Step 3: Create array of duplicate records
56:37 Step 4: Update duplicate records in the Attendees table

Thanks for watching!

#airtable #airtablescripting

[rmadd]

We love Gio! I'm so pumped to watch this series...thanks bunches! ~ The Adobe Learn team

[luisvillar]

Thank you guys, I had a different use case but your explanation and examples gave me enough information to successfully complete my task.

[elikent]

I'm joining you from Puerto Rico. I'm a pretty new developer. I've dabbled in python. I'm here because I need to automate something in AT and unable to figure out how to do it through automations so trying my hand at writing a script.

[barrybrewer]

Guys, this is wonderful. Thank you so much!!!

[DigitalMindQuest]

I am with you! I am starting and I am particularly writing a "program' that will be pulling data from external API and post them into airtable...

[aaronholmes]

I really like this method, thank you! Just to note though, that this method won't *clear* the duplicate flag once a record has been updated to have non-duplicated value.

[anshulnishant]

Hey Aaron, loved the session and was great learning. I had tried the script, had problem at the line :await It throws error that field 'Duplicate?' does nor exist in my table. Would appreciate if you can come will resolution.

[rafaelnegreiros_analyst]

I found fantastic this lesson. I tried to use this solution in a table with about 1k records, but using the script in automation, such as whenever a new record is created, check if it's duplicated. But as the script takes about 1min, it doesnt work in automation, once it's allowed script running during up 30sec. Do you have a way do make it faster?

[vsakthivel]

Hi Thanks for update its really very useful . my Question is if the table contain 100k Record, How is the speed & performance of the checking the duplicates .

[emmanueleban]

thanks guys appreciate this ..a bit stuck as i am using this method to avoid dateoverlapping for appointment and pushing a new date for the appointment if date already exist. will appreciate your help please

[GuyohmB]

Thanks for the nice video ! Is it possible to differentiate the old duplicate from the newest one ? In my case, I want to find duplicate - Keep the wen one and delete the old one. Thanks for your help !

[geckosonic]

Your scripts use selectRecordsAsync, which are deprecated

[Shadowkorsow]

How about filtering out cells that have blank values??? i have a column of values that contain values (that need to be checked for duplicates) or should be blank. been trying for a while but cant figure it out

[Snake_Therapy]

I appreciate how you go through this slowly and clearly, HOWEVER... when I put this script into my base, I immediately received a bunch of error messages with "Methods" and Fix options that made me lose all understanding of what you explained in the video. also there was a depreciation of code you used... #clueless #reallybadatthis #sigh

[frankdrolet]

Great tutorial, very helpful! I think it would be worth it to edit o try to be more concise, the video could be lasting 20-30 minutes while having the same content.

[aaronchow]

The moderator is slowing down the presentation and keep talking over the presenter.