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Show a field from the linked record with a Lookup field

Show the company’s city on every contact, or the payment terms on every deal. The value is read from the source every time, so it’s never out of date.

6 min
Before you start · 1 thing · for owners
A relation between the two units
  • You need: The permission to edit units
  • There’s a relation between the two units.

Steps

1
Open Add Field and choose Lookup from the Relation tab.
2
Choose the relation in Through relation, then the field from the other unit in Field to show.
3
If the relation reaches many records, choose how they’re shown.
4
Save.
The field shows right away, with no wait, because it doesn’t store values.

Display options for a to-many relation

Option
Result
Show all (default)
Up to 20 values, with “+7 more” for the rest
Show first
One value, from the first linked record
Join into one line
One text, such as a@x.com, b@x.com, with a separator of 1 to 8 characters

In a relation to a single record, the value itself shows.

The value shows in the source’s type: an option by its label, a date and time in your time zone, and an amount in its currency.

Permissions

Each user sees the value only if they can see the source record. Otherwise the field shows empty.

A deleted record, an empty link, a record you can’t see and a broken setup all show empty, in the same way.

Filtering, sorting and grouping

Relation to one record
To-many relation
Filtering
Every operator of the source type
“Any linked record matches”
Sorting
Available
Not available
Grouping in Kanban and dashboards
Not available
Not available

In formulas

The Calculation field reads a lookup as a number only if the source is a number, currency or rating, and there’s a single value (a relation to one record, or “Show first”). To add up the list, use a rollup.

When does it become empty?

Deleting the relation or the source field makes the lookup empty, without any wrong value. Point it at another field. Deactivating the lookup field itself loses nothing.

If something goes wrong

What you see
Why
What to do
A message that the source field isn’t allowed
The source is one of the types that aren’t allowed.
Choose a regular field.
The lookup field is empty for a teammate
They can’t see the source record.
Check their level.
“Can’t sort by the lookup field”
A to-many relation.
Sort by another field.
The field is suddenly empty for everyone
The relation or the source field was deleted.
Point it at a field again.
The formula rejected the lookup field
It isn’t a single number.
Change the option to “Show first”, or use a rollup.

A real example

Shield Security Co.
The situation

The technician needs the client’s address on every visit.

What they did
  1. In “Visits”, a lookup field shows the “Address” from the linked client.
The result

Changing the address in the client’s record shows in all of their visits right away.

A made-up company, to show the idea. The numbers are rounded.

Good to know

It can’t show another lookup, a calculation, a relation, a file, a photo or a catalog.
A list holds up to 20 items, and a joined line up to 500 characters.
In public forms, it shows only if the source unit is public and the field isn’t sensitive.
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