Forum Discussion

JessicaAdkins's avatar
JessicaAdkins
Qrew Cadet
8 years ago

Can QB scrub a list for unique identifiers before importing?

Is it possible for QuickBase to scrub a list for unique identifiers before importing new data into a table?

For example, I have a spreadsheet but only want specific rows uploaded and that would be based on a unique identifier from a column. Without manually doing that in the spreadsheet, is there a way to preset accepted UIs in the column prior to import?

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  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    8 years ago
    You can upload the raw file to a "scratch" table and then make summary report of the UI.  Then make a summary report of the Unique identifiers, which will of course have 1 row per UI and then "Copy these records to another table" using the More ... button.

     
    • JessicaAdkins's avatar
      JessicaAdkins
      Qrew Cadet
      8 years ago
      Wouldn't that time be almost equivalent to the original scrubbing of the S/S? I'm trying to eliminate that step completely.
    • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
      QuickBaseCoachD
      Qrew Captain
      8 years ago
      I had misread your initial post thinking that you were trying to eliminate duplicates.  Instead you are saying that only certain UIs are valid for import.  The only way I can think to do that is again to have a scratch table to import into and then use a filtered version of that to copy across to another table for just the valid UIs.  That step to copy across the valid ones could be a single button click that would import the valid ones and say delete the records in the scratch file.

      But I can't think of a native way to import and have invalid ones get scrubbed out during the import process, all as one step.  But my suggestion would be pretty close.

      1. Raw import to a scratch file 
      2. Push a button.
  • ChuckGrigsby's avatar
    ChuckGrigsby
    Qrew Cadet
    8 years ago
    Are you trying to import X rows where some column = ABC123 basically the same unique ID value. Or do you have a list where 2 rows have the same unique ID and you only want to import one of them? Either way I think you could do this by using the Filter option in excel. Then copy only visible cells and paste that into your quickbase import.