Merging multiple datapoints from a collection into one form input field.

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Posted on by Daniël

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[This post has been edited by me so the question is clearer.]

I am trying to develop an application using a form. However, I want several inputs into one record.

For example, imagine I want to make a list of cats per person and I want the record to obtain data on their personal details and all their cats. It is important for me to have a record for each person and have multiple cats per record.

What I would like to do is as follows, users get to fill out two tables. The form and input for a collection:

Name	Gender	Nationality	Cats	Colors
[fill in]	[choose]	[choose]	[retrieve string from collection 'Cat Name' column]	[retrieve string from collection 'Cat Color' column]

Cat Name	Cat Color	Cat Age, etc.
[fill in]	[fill in]	[fill in]

The second table will allow you to add cats every click, which will immediately be displayed in a gallery for users to keep an overview. Now what I would like to know is how I can have the form input for 'Cats' retrieve the entire column of data from the 'Cat Name' collection.

Name	Gender	Nationality	Cats	Colors
Bob	Male	USA	Figo; Fluffy; Bob Jr	White; Red; Black
Linda	Female	Canada	Bella; Noodle	White; Grey

I want to use a collection to create a list of the cats and their colors and the form to retrieve that data, so it all gets collected into one record.

Does anyone know how to approach this? Or do you have a better suggestion?

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AhmedSalih 6,678 Moderator on at

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Hello, @Daniël , The form can only be mapped to one record. You can't map the form to a collection that has two two or more records unless you use a filter of first and last functions to get one record at a time.

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mmollet 3,187 on at

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How does your user input data for cat names etc? combobox? text input?
Also is there a reason to not just make a new entry for each cat as that is how a data source is meant to work. This stype of setup will get very hard to keep accurate. I would think about just making a new entry for each cat. You can still do the same things with them being separate entries and it will arguably make it better in the long run. This would also let you store more data on the cats if need be

Here is an example:
{Name: Bob, Gender: Male, Nationality: USA, Cats: [Figo, Fluffy, Bob Jr], Colors: [White, Red, Black], Age: [3, 5, 4]}
or
{Name: Bob, Gender: Male, Nationality: USA, Cat: Figo, Color: White, Age: 3, etc} <-- much easier to extract data

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Daniël 147 on at

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Hello, thank you for replying,

So it is important for me to have a record for each person and have multiple cats per record. (In actuality the cats are just an example and not the actual use-case.)

What I would like to do is as follows, users get to fill out two tables. The form and input for a collection:
Name Gender Nationality Cats Colors
[fill in] [choose] [choose] [retrieve string from collection 'Cat Name' column] [retrieve string from collection 'Cat Color' column]

Cat Name Cat Color Cat Age, etc.
[fill in] [fill in] [fill in]

The second table will allow you to add cats every click, which will immediately be displayed in a gallery for users to keep an overview. Now what I would like to know is how I can have the form input for 'Cats' retrieve the entire column of data from the 'Cat Name' collection. Preferably in the format as displayed in my first post.

Help on how to code this would be very much appreciated.

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Daniël 147 on at

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For others; I found the solution. It was surprisingly simple.

Basically, I set the Default value of the input box to the following:
Concat( [Collection Name], [Collumn Name] & "; " )
So for example this would be:
Concat( CatList, Cat_Name & "; " )
Which defaults the input to listing the collection inputs under the Cat_Name category, e.g.:
Cats
Figo; Fluffy; Bob Jr

Hope this helps others!

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