One of the most common database tasks is searching for a value and replacing it with another value. You can do this in QuickBase, but you have to look hard to find the right buttons. Today, we’ll show you how to do it.
For example, say that you have a sales office in Kansas City that covers all your sales in the Great Plains. But your sales increase, and you decide you need to open a second office in Dallas to cover sales in Oklahoma and Texas.
You need to change the sales office for all your customers in Oklahoma and Texas - and you don’t want to do it by hand. Here’s what you do: Create a report that lists all the customers you want to change. Your search filter will look something like this:
Once you have your list, you’ll see, near the top of the report, a little link that says “OTHER” Click on that and you will see, among many other options “Search & Replace (in this report only)” (if you do not see that option, then you do not have permission to make multi-record changes, and you cannot do a Search and Replace).
Click on that link, and you will see something like this:
Select the field that you wish to change (Sales Office in our example), and then enter the text you want to change FROM, and change TO. Click on OK, and QuickBase will tell you how many records will be affected. If the number seems correct to you, click on Replace, and the data will be changed.
Note that the report on your screen will not change until you refresh it, but the data back at QuickBase really has changed.
Be Careful Out There
Also note - there is no “undo” command here. Once you make the change, there is no easy way to undo it, so make sure that this is what you want to do!
Multiple deletes are also possible with this strategy. Just create a report of the records you want to delete, and then, under “Other”, the option “Other Operations on Customers in this Report”. Click there and you will see a delete option.
