Semi-colon issues with pasting values in linked fields

Hi,

It seems there is some inconsistency with how Baserow treats semi-colons upon copy-paste in linked fields.

In short: if one established a link with a field with a semi-colon its name, it produces errors upon trying to copy it back into the linked field column, whenever there is an intermediate step (like copying the value to a text field or an external app first - and then copying it back to Baserow)

Also:
Commas and semi-colons seem to have a different behaviour with copy paste.
When one copies the value from a linked field to a text fields - Baserow adds " " for values with commas, so that when one copies the value back to the linked field column, the value is recognized correctly.

However, for semi-colon in linked fields, Baserow does not add the quotations marks automatically (not even in exports), so when one attempts to paste the value back into a linked field from a text field or external source - an error appears:
image

This does not seem to happen when one attempts to paste many values (one of which includes a semi-colon) when all are separated by commas.

Adding quotation marks to the pasted value with semi-colons seems to solve the paste issue, but it is very annoying when dealing with larger sets of data, especially when part of the workflow requires the use of other apps. The other solution is to not use semi-colons :slight_smile: but enforcing that among regular users may be tricky.

Just tested this with 1.27.2

Hey @dev-rd, thanks for reporting this. I’m having some problems reproducing the exact scenario. When you’re talking about a field with semi-colon in the name. Are you then talking about the field name, or the cell value? It would be appreciated if you can share a screenshot of the problem, or steps on how to reproduce it. :slight_smile:

examples for copying values from text fields (other apps like Excel give the same result)


what is even worse - commas and semi colons seem to cause issues with import/export

example of missing values
I exported the view via json
I then re-imported it to the same table

note that it works for when multiple values are present, like in row 7 (re-imported as 17)

more on the json import
in the preview the values with commas and semi colons (apparently, regardless of the use of quotation marks) are treated as separate values

I assume they fail to get imported, as such values do not actually exist in the linked table.

maybe we should split the thread as the import/export issue may be a separate thing (?)

@bram - please let me know if the above info would be enough for you to reproduce the issue.

Hey @dev-rd, thank you for the detailed explanation. I was able to reproduce the problem, and have created this issue here: Pasting value with semi-colon into `link_row` field cell splits the value into two (#2999) · Issues · Baserow / baserow · GitLab. I’ll soon scope it, and try to prioritize it for you.

Thanks!
in terms of priority - the right click AI generate issue would be higher on the list for me :slight_smile:

Hey @dev-rd, thanks for letting that know. I have just fixed this bug here Draft: Resolve "multiple rows selection: AI field generation on right-click gets no rows in the frontend" (!2699) · Merge requests · Baserow / baserow · GitLab. It will be included in the next release.

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