šŸ’« A NEW way to Trebuchet!

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:wave: Hey fellow Gliders!

If you havenā€™t heard of the Trebuchet method, itā€™s a term coined by @Lucas_Pires that refers to creating inline arrays. Inline arrays can be an efficient way to create relations without requiring a helper table thereby preserving your row count!

Previously, the Trebuchet method required about 6 columns and 2 custom actions (4 updates to add and remove a single item). This new version of the Trebuchet method cuts that usage IN HALF :star_struck: (3 columns, 1 action).

The magic lies in leveraging the Multiple Files column to store an array of items that youā€™d like to relate to another table. You have to see it to believe it!

:popcorn: Enjoy

Click here to see the previous version of the Trebuchet method

:dizzy: The Trebuchet Method

Thank you to @Darren_Murphy for the discovery of this functionality!

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Box office stuff :popcorn:

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Great tutorial Bob @Robert_Petitto . Thanks for this. It will come VERY HANDY for one of my projects.

Just a question though, if you dont mind, I heard you mention that this will use the same number of updates as if you were adding or deleting a row.
Does this consume updates though since you were using Glide tables and therefore updates should ot be consumed unless i misunderstood something.

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That would depend whether you are on a legacy or new pricing plan. On the new plans there would be no updates involved. However, the multiple files column is a non-computed column, so editing it will consume updates on the legacy plans.

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Thanks @Darren_Murphy for that response. I was confused about what he meant but this explains it.

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So if it is not computed does it mean we can set it as row owner?

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No, you canā€™t make it a Row Owner.
What would be the use case for that?

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Like in google we can set array column as row owner

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I see. Yes I guess that would be useful, but unfortunately itā€™s not supported.
It would be even more useful if it could be set as the Role column in the User Profile. But unfortunately it doesnā€™t support that either.

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What @Darren_Murphy said :point_up: :sweat_smile:

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Thatā€™s great @Robert_Petitto. I just found out that the ā€œMultiple Filesā€ column can have another function and can be inputted with the ā€œset column valueā€ action. Thank you for sharing.

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Very good! I already wanna see the next video using Json Object

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Bob and I have been discussing the potential for using this method with JSON data for a while. Initially it wasnā€™t possible, but Glide recently made a change that now allows you to store JSON Objects inside a multiple files column. The problem is that the data within a single JSON object often changes, so using the Remove Element column to remove from the array can easily fail. I think there are probably still valid use cases for storing JSON in a Multiple Files column, but it might require a different approach for managing the array.

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Supreme as always, Robert, thank you very much! :pray:
Only question i have which way is faster - this one JSON Trebuchet or using Data Structures? Abd if JT is faster, what would be use cases for DS now, when we become to know about JT? :thinking:

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I havenā€™t given the two had to head test so Iā€™m unsure which one is faster. The problem Iā€™ve always had with data structures is that you canā€™t add new data to a structure that doesnā€™t exist so at some point in the array creation process, you have to fill it with a empty structure .

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