How to display text values of child records in many to many tables?

Question

I'm new to Quickbase, so if these questions have been answered before, apologies - I couldn't find it in the forums. Perhaps I'm using the wrong terminology.

I have two tables, Individuals and Organizations. One organization can contain many individuals, and one individual can be associated with many organizations.

Question 1: I don't want to share any data except for which organizations relate to which individuals and vice versa. Is a many-to-many relationship the only option? Is it the best option? Perhaps this question depends on the answers to my subsequent questions.

Now, I have set up a many-to-many relationship, which seems to be working reasonably well. But it would be extremely useful to be able to see in each table's grid the actual related organizations in the individuals table, and vice versa.

Question 2: In other words, in the individuals table, how do I replace the report link to the join table with an actual list of the related organizations?

Question 3: If I do manage to the pull the data of the actual list of related organizations into the individuals , will I then be able to sort the tables by the related organizations listed?

quickbasecoachd · Answer

I believe that you are asking if on a Parent record to see a summary of the details in text information from child records (the children here are your Join table records) . There is not currently a Summary text type fields where you can roll up the children into a long text field.

However, using a technique called reverse relationships you can float up the data contained in a limited number of child records up to the parent.

Can you tell me what the reasonable number of children you need to flow up is. Note that you can also have a message that tells the user that there are more.

I will post an additional response with how to do reverse relationships.

quickbasecoachd · Answer

Here is an answer to the situation where 1 Job has many Operators.&nbsp; this is a manufacturing situation where the Job (an Order) has many Machine Operators required to complete that job.&nbsp; The "ask" was the same, ie to look at a report of Jobs and see on the report, all the Operators.&nbsp;This technique can be used for say up to a half a dozen "loops", but if you plan to get into say 20 loops then while it will work, Quick Base will need to do a lot of calculations to display the report, so the report will get slow if you have a lot of data.As for sorting, I think that will be tough (ie not possible using native Quick Base) to do.&nbsp; The data from the child record will float up in the order it was entered.Reverse Relationship setup    The way to do this is with as many "reverse relationships" as you guess will be enough to cover off 99% if the situation.    So, let talk about Operators.&nbsp;&nbsp;One Job has many Operators.&nbsp;&nbsp;Make a   summary field on that relationship of the Minimum of the Record ID# of   Operators.&nbsp;&nbsp;Call it [Record ID# of Operator 1].&nbsp;  Then do a lookup of that down to the child Operator table as we will need it later.    Then do a new Relationship where one Operator has many jobs.&nbsp;For the   reference field (the field on the right side), use that new Summary   field called [Record ID of Operator 1].&nbsp;&nbsp;Get rid of the extra fields   that get created on the left side of the relationship (Add Operator and   that report link field).&nbsp;&nbsp;Do a lookup from the Operator down to Jobs and   bring in the Operator Name and call it Operator 1.    Wonderful, the Job now knows the first Operator.    Now, make a duplicate of that summary field, but in the duplicate add   the extra condition that the [record ID#] is greater than the [Record   ID# of Operator 1].&nbsp;&nbsp;Call it [Record ID# of Operator 2].&nbsp;&nbsp;Do a lookup of   that field back down to the Child Operator table as we will need it   later.    Now, in making that duplicate, conveniently, you will find that it   duplicated the reverse relationship so now&nbsp;do a lookup in that   relationship of the operator name called it [Operator 2].&nbsp;&nbsp;Wonderful   again,&nbsp;we now have Operator #2's name on the Job Record.    Then make another duplicate of that summary field and just keep going,   each time changing the filter so that the record ID# is greater than the   previously highest record ID of Operator.    In the end say you collect the names of the first 4 operators on a job, so then just string them together in a formula like    List ("
",  [Operator 1],  [Operator 2],  [Operator 3],  [Operator 4])    &nbsp;and put that concatenated field list on your report.

samw · Answer

Thank you so much! I'm going to have a go implementing this now.

quickbasecoachd · Answer

OK, let me know how you make out.&nbsp; Note that is you decide to float up say the 1st 5 children, you van male a summary field to count the # of children, and then also include in your concatenated field list, IF([# children] &gt; 5, " .. and see Parent for more")&nbsp;

samw · Answer

Can I clarify: should this reverse relationship be with the many-to-many relationship's join table? Or should it be directly between the two master tables (i.e. getting rid of the join table)?&nbsp;

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How to display text values of child records in many to many tables?

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