I have this comment from a while back. It makes total sense, except I end up with a blank name field in the user table. Since name is one of the primary fields in the user table, I’m wondering if I’m setting myself up for any problems down the road. I noticed I can’t delete the name column, which makes me think something bad will happen if it’s left blank.
Jeff_HagerExpert
Mar '21
In my app I collect names in separate fields. It forces the user to insert names properly instead of mixing ‘First Last’, or ‘Last, First’, etc. I have a template column that joins it into ‘Last, First’, so it’s always sorted by last name first. It’s all your preference, but that’s what I do.
If you wanted to collect it in a single field, then I think you would still have to split them in a google sheet to get separate columns to sort by. You can split in glide, but you can’t work with each split value individually.
Several things have changed since that comment two and a half years ago. Now you can split a combined name with a Split Text column, followed by two Single Value columns to retrieve each post of the name.
Can you explain what you are trying to do?
I’m having users fill out an onboarding form. The submissions go to a helper row and then to a public users table when they submit the data. I need the public users table because I want everyone to be able to see some of the data. Got that idea from @ThinhDinh
That data also populates the user table.
I have two problems really. I’ve been collecting first name and last name separately so I could alphabetize by last name then combining them using a template column called full name. That works okay, but I can’t assign a value to the name column from the form submission table.
Since I’m using a custom form, I don’t see a way to directly assign values from the form to the user table. Am I missing something?
Is that convoluted enough?
I think you can change your onboarding flow to write directly to the User Profiles row, then on a button click, you write some of that info to a public table, thus eliminating the helper row.
Not sure why there needs to be a submission table. If you can do it like my comment above, I think there doesn’t need to be a form.
2 Likes
@ThinhDinh Thanks for suggesting the improved onboarding flow. I think I’ve got it working the way I want it. I really appreciate how much time you guys devote to helping us!
One last question… Does anything get messed up if the name field in the user tab ends up blank? I’m collecting last name and first name separately and then combining them in a template column called full name. It seems to be working well, but I want to make sure something down the road isn’t going to break if the name field is empty. Thanks very much.
1 Like
No, shouldn’t really be a problem. The most important part of a user profile is the email.
1 Like
@Jeff_Hager Thanks so much for all the time you spend helping us get these things going. I hope you know how much we appreciate it. 
3 Likes
Glad to hear you got it working!
@ThinhDinh and @Jeff_Hager I wonder if you guys ever think about the final product of all the help you provide.
This is the testing version of the app you’ve been assisting me with.
It’s actually pretty simple, once you get past the onboarding process which drove me crazy. But what it does is pretty profound.
Our team collects miles from running, riding bikes, and walking throughout the year. A generous donor matches the miles $1 per mile, and the money goes to a safe house for kids rescued from sex trafficking.
So the work you did will help us raise between $60,000 and $70,000 in 2024 to support these kids.
To you guys, figuring out this app stuff is pretty routine. But in this case, the results are priceless.
Thank you again for all your help. And be assured you’ll hear from me again
7 Likes
That’s awesome work. Thanks for sharing. This is the stuff that we want to see daily in the community. All good vibes.
2 Likes