Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Get Help
  • How Do I
  • Zapier Tables: How do I make bulk updates to records? E.g. add new column, etc...
Question

Zapier Tables: How do I make bulk updates to records? E.g. add new column, etc...

  • 31 May 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 109 views

TL;DR:  I’m creating a number of different data sets in Tables, with thousands of records each. Is there a way to rapidly update/enrich data? E.g. add a new column, update blank records.

I’m a technical, non-technical co-founder - i.e. I understand tech and can read + understand API documents, but I can’t code anything per se.

I want to connect the data from a number of systems, e.g. reservations, access codes, customers, screening results, package notifications, etc...

Our core system has an API, but no web hooks. But it has trigger emails and automations that can customize and we’re pushing through Zapier’s email parser to create web hooks for systems that are not integrated (e.g. creating a new temporary access code for each reservation in our access management system).

For NEW records (i.e. new reservations), I have include all the dynamic fields that I need to send to Zapier Tables.

For OLD records (i.e. historic reservations), I currently don’t have a report or extract that includes all of the fields that I need. For example, the reservation data only includes an ID number (e.g. 1357) instead of a long string ID (e.g. 3bc57810-91db-4ed6-94da-9f62fc24fd2c). It includes the customer’s information, but not their customer ID (i.e. to cross-reference to the customer data set).

I need some of these IDs to lookups for other tables. E.g. my reservation system has an integration to a screening system, but it uses the long reservation ID (e.g. 3bc57810-91db-4ed6-94da-9f62fc24fd2c) to link the records - I don’t have this on historic records.

So if I import all of my historic reservation data in Zapier Tables, it will be missing the long reservation ID and the customer ID. I am working to get an extract of this data, but don’t know how long it will take. I am not sure how to update the thousands of records in Zapier Tables once I do.

If it was in Excel or similar, I could use a VLOOKUP. Or if it was in a spreadsheet or Airtable (or similar), I could filter the records and then copy and paste the data. But none of these options appear available in Zapier Tables.

I can’t find anything in Zapier’s help docs. Any idea how to do this quickly in bulk?

This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

2 replies

Samual.B
Userlevel 1

This post has been edited by a moderator to remove personal information. Please remember that this is a public forum and to remove any sensitive information prior to posting.

Hi 
if you want To make bulk updates to records in Zapier Tables, you can use the "Update Record" action in a Zap and filter the records based on a search key. 

Then, you can use the "Lookup Spreadsheet Row" action to search for the record and the "Update Record" action to update the record with new values. To add a new column to your Zapier Table, you can add a new field in the "Create Record" action.

Best regards
Sam
 

S

Hey Sam. Interesting idea, thank you!

I guess I could set up a mirror Google Sheet or similar, and create a trigger such as for ‘New or Updated Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets’ to look up and update the relevant records in the Zapier Table.

So in theory, copy and pasting a new column of data say, would add all the new cell data to the records in Zapier Tables. I’ll give it a go! I didn’t think something like that would for cell data - I.e. only new rows would be a trigger.

Terms & Conditions