Join Two Tables in Quickbase

Quickbase uses table-to-table relationships to link records. When linking table B (the parent) into table A (the child), you must link on the key field of table B, and you can only link it to a field in table A with the same field type.

Rules for creating relationships

1. Key field is mandatory — Quickbase uses the parent table’s key field to populate the child table’s reference field. By default this is Record ID#, but you can specify a different key field.
2. Field type must match — The reference field in the child table must have the same type as the key field in the parent (e.g., text-to-text, numeric-to-numeric).
3. Avoid lookup fields initially — Do not choose lookup fields when first linking B to A. Quickbase will make these fields into proxy fields, which have unpredictable behavior and complicate reporting. Create the relationship first, then add lookup fields afterward.

How to add fields to an existing relationship

Once the relationship is established, you can enhance it with:

• Lookup fields — Pull values from the parent record into the child (e.g., show the parent’s “Customer Name” on the child “Order”).
• Summary fields — Aggregate child data up to the parent (e.g., count of orders, total revenue).

Related: sql-injection-attacks (database security), MS SQL (relational database concepts).

Sources

• Quickbase — What are table-to-table relationships?
• Quickbase — Create table-to-table relationships
• Quickbase — Add fields to table-to-table relationships

See also

• sql-injection-attacks
• MS SQL