Filters vs Paths vs Lookup Tables: A Visual Guide

  • 25 February 2023
  • 1 reply
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Filters vs Paths vs Lookup Tables: A Visual Guide
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Even the most seasoned Zapier user sometimes has a hard time deciding whether to use a filter with multiple Zaps, a single Zap with multiple paths, or a single Zap with a lookup table.

We’re trying something a little different and providing a visual guide that hopefully helps to clarify when/why you might choose to use one over the other.

Filters

If you’re trying to have several different outcomes from your workflow, using multiple Zaps with a filter is one way to approach it.

Click to enlarge.

Paths

Similar to using multiple Zaps with a filter, Paths provide multiple outcomes using only one Zap.

Click to enlarge.

 

Lookup Table

Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the options, a lookup table is beneficial when you’ve got specific fields that decide an outcome. 

Click to enlarge.

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Here in the Zapier community we’re always trying to create resources that are helpful to our members. We’d love to hear whether this helped to make sense of things, or maybe it left you with more questions.


1 reply

This would have been more useful with actual samples rather than graphics or at least links to the relevant documentation (i.e. - Lookup Tables, other than surmising there is magic involved there is no way to tell how to actually look up something in the table and pass the results on. 

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