Manually allow a duplicate entry in a field

Question

Currently I have a Serial Number field which is ticked for "Must be unique". This works 98% of the time in ensuring no duplicate user errors when entering the serial number.

I have the situation where that same device may be returned and re-used again elsewhere requiring the need to capture the same serial number against a different job/site. With the "Must be unique" flag this will stop you from saving.

Is there a workaround where it can still check for duplicates and if found provide a warning and way to allow the duplication? Thanks.

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Grant K
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markshnier__you · Answer

Yep, been there, done it, bought the T-Shirt (ie I had the same problem)

Just make a new checkbox field called [Allow Duplicate Serial?].

The make a new field called [Cannot use the same serial twice unless you flag as Allow duplicates].

The formula will be
IF(not [Allow Duplicate Serial?], [Serial Number])

The one "value", that is allowed to be duplicated when the field is flagged as unique is null. So the above formula would be null if [Allow Duplicate Serial?] is checked.

So flag this one as being unique and unflag the [Serial Number] as being Unique.

The reason for the long field name [Cannot use the same serial twice unless you flag as Allow duplicates] is to give the user a good error message when they try to save a duplicate which is not flagged to allow duplicates.

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Mark Shnier (Your Quickbase Coach)
mark.shnier@gmail.com
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grantk · Answer

This should do the job - thanks Mark!------------------------------Grant K------------------------------

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Manually allow a duplicate entry in a field