Question

I've got database A with 1000's of records. I'd like to make a table that lists a subset of records from database A, along with some new properties. I can't just do a view, as this would add these new properties to database A, and the new properties are unique to this subset of items. It sounds simple: create database B and set up a relation to database A using a common key. In my case, the data for database B will be entered by hand. The twist is that the key names in database A are messy. I'd like to filter items in database A, copy the key names, and paste them into an empty database B to get started. When I do, though, I just get all the key names as one continuous piece of text in one entry. Is there a way to copy the names and paste them into a new DB as a series of entries?

Dropping the db A vs db B stuff, in this case, db A is thousands of citations from Zotero imported via Notero, resulting in a large db in Notion. When writing a paper or grant proposal, I like to take all the papers using deep learning for task X and make a new table about differences in methodology. Which papers used data from more than one source? What architecture did each paper use? Etc. These fields are only relevant to the current paper or grant proposal and not every paper in Zotero.

It also seems like the text names in Notion aren't the actual keys. They are just labels associated with the "real" keys, yet from the Notion relation examples, they seem to join based on the text. Is that correct? That seems dangerous. If one of the folks with a DB background and lots of Notion experience could share what they've figured out, that would be great to have in the forums.

Comments

I'm figuring this out.

For the cut and paste, most instructions say highlight everything in the column you want from database A, cmd/ctr;+C and then paste into a cell in the new table. The big thing they leave out is that the empty cell must be highlighted blue. Then your cmd/ctrl+V will work. Most instructions leave this out and half the posts say "it doesn't work for me!"

Now for the relations part, how disappointing. It seems like you create a relations property and it will be empty. You must cell by cell select records from the other database. Is there any better way?

• I tried creating the relation on a property with the names in place (essentially trying to convert from text to relation). No luck. It erases the names.
• I tried creating the relation property first and then pasting in the names from the other database. It just highlighted the column in blue but the cells were empty.
• Tried copying links from the original table and pasting them into the first cell of the relation. Still no luck.

Is there a way? Or does no-code mean endless clicking in this case?

---

Oh, wow. I was expecting relations to be something like a join. Nope. I was hoping that once I had one relation setup, I could then select which properties would be copied from the original database into my new one. The way they do relations seems weak to me. I can include properties from the original db, but only on the page for each record and not displayed as an actual property in the table. Am I missing something? Is there a way to do what I was thinking? Relations suddenly seem kind of ho-hum. Instead of a limited version of relations I'd get in other databases, I get something mildly above a hyperlink. Or am I missing something?

---

Ok, if anyone else is struggling and bothered to read my case. The final step is to make a rollup for each property I want copied from the original database. This link https://app.screencast.com/zVRr3jVKn6Znr shows it. Feels quite clunky, but it does do what I want. I'm still left manually setting up the relation for each record. Maybe I can fix that with a formula? Any help on automating that?