# Help - Set a flag once

**URL:** <https://community.glideapps.com/t/help-set-a-flag-once/61334>\
**Category:** Ask for Help\
**Created:** [May 4, 2023, 10:58am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/help-set-a-flag-once/61334 "2023-05-04T10:58:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 10:58am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/help-set-a-flag-once/61334/1 "2023-05-04T10:58:58Z")

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I have a feed where I ‘show’ if the item has been read or not. Lightbulb means it has been read.  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/7/b/7b4fd63f421b4842775dd961d9631c22c56db368.png)

Read means it has been opened via an action (e.g. clicked on). The custom action (lots of ITE) calls a different ‘show screen’ depending on the type of object in the feed. In this example a new event was created and a new target was created. The target has not been looked at (light bulb); the event has not (still shows ‘new’).

Each ITE ‘case’ does a set col value to read and then does the ‘show screen’. I really only want the value to be set to read if it hasn’t been read/set yet (to save updates). There are 20 cases in the ITE and I am trying to avoid replicating all of the them to change the logic to look like:

- (if this type and not read) - (set col val to read ; show detail screen) and
- (if this type and read) - (show detail screen).

Just wondering if other Gliders have figured out how to do this - not waste updates to re-update a ‘update-once’ column. Some column magic…maybe.

Thanks

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/9/a/9a01f5288df03c8a24186d26cd06ea3e5485efe3.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 11:14am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/help-set-a-flag-once/61334/2 "2023-05-04T11:14:00Z")

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Couldn’t you just have a User Specific boolean column, and set that to true the first time they view/read the item?

At least, that’s what I usually do in this situation.