Hey folks,
We just released the formula field with a core set of 30 functions. We’d love to get some feedback on how usable it is, what the most important missing functions are and any other wanted features.
Cheers,
Nigel
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Amazing work on a challenging initiative, I am sure.
I am putting in a vote for some function to count the number of linked fields from a different table. Based on my reading of the docs, this was not a part of this initial release of 30 core functions. I will happily be corrected, if wrong.
Thanks!
Counting the amount of relationships in the link to table field is indeed not included in the first release of the formula field. Would you mind sharing why you would need this functionality? I’m also curious how this would work exactly. If you for example have table like this:
And you create a formula field field with the following formula count_relationships(field("On-site interview")), the count_relationships would be your requested function. Do you expect the outcome to be 2 in first row and 0 in the second row?
A good example of how this works is looking at how blog comments work, I think. We have one central post and then a bunch of comments that reference this central post and all I want to do is have a field that tracks the total number of comments so I can then sort all the posts by the number of comments. The counting ends up becoming a marker of importance – the importance of the relationships you are creating – and understanding how to weigh the importance of these relationships is a big part of why I find relational logging tools valuable.
On AT they have a count function that allows me to do just this. If you add a count column and reference a linked column it will just count the total number of linked records. If only one record then it returns 1 and not 0 – so in your example it would return 2 in the first row and 1 in the second. If devs want to return 0 then they could do this with the API but within the app I think it makes more sense to tally it normally.
Also, Bram: You’re amazing for taking on this challenge. I’m loving some of the design decisions you’ve made so far, like keeping the tables in the left sidebar instead of as tabs on top, like in AT, as this becomes crowded with many tables. The design of the feature roadmap is also great and very brave of you, to commit to these shipping deadlines for challenging new features. I’m impressed.
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A count field sounds like a good idea and will make things a bit simpler compared to just having the ability in the formula field. We already had a count field on the backlog here Count field (#224) · Issues · Bram Wiepjes / baserow · GitLab, but I’ve added a small description that we should also make this available as a formula function.
Hey, we just released baserow 1.7 which can do exactly what you need!
You can use a formula column now to count the number of related comments like so:
- Create a link row field to your comment table from the post table
- Add a new formula field to the post table with formula
count(field('comments')) - This new formula will now show you how many comments there are per post and you can sort/filter by the formula field!
Let me know if you have any issues or further ideas 
We will add a separate count column which is a simple wrapper around this count function in the future, but for now its functionally the same.
@nigel: You the man now, dawg! Really impressed that this small Baserow squad is actually listening and building on ideas added here. Keep up the incredible work!
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