Introduction to Airtable, a low-code Platform with database functionality

airtable is a low-code platform that allows anyone to create relational databases and visualize data. You don’t even need to know SQL or Excel to achieve this.

For example, consider how long it will take you to achieve this goal:

• Create a database with records
• Select specific data according to certain conditions
• Display filtered data in a chart (bar, pie)
• Share projects with others online

It’s a simple task, and you can do it with Excel. But it has a bit complicated learning curve and hence takes more time. The key advantage of choosing Airtable is that you can get started straight away with its online, user-friendly GUI.

In this article, you will learn about the main benefits of Airtable. I’ll be demonstrating its key features in a step-by-step practical demo.

let’s get started!

Hundreds of pre-made templates

If you don’t know where to start or need some inspiration, check out the ready-to-use templates. They are based on categories. To give you an idea, here are some examples of marketing categories:

You can try a template in interactive mode by clicking:

API integration

Connecting your favorite tools with Airtable is easy, thanks to its integration API. Some of the supported platforms include Gmail, Instagram, GitHub, YouTube, and many more.

automation

Automation gives you the ability to create powerful workflows. For example, you can automate Slack messages when a specific event occurs.

No coding required – you can drag and drop events to create the desired workflow. But if you need to include custom logic, you can extend the functionality using JavaScript code.

extension

The out-of-the-box extension enables you to create dashboards of various charts, graphs, metrics, etc.

For example, imagine you have a company. You want to store employee details and create a relational diagram to see who reports to whom.

Here is an example of an organization chart showing employee relationships:

easy data import

It is easy to create a database from existing data. You can import records directly from a CSV file or from another tool like Google Sheets, Trello, Microsoft Excel, etc.

Collaboration and data sync

This feature allows you to work together with your friends and colleagues. The big advantage is that everything is stored in the cloud, and you can access your work anywhere.

freemium tool

Airtable is a freemium tool. Note that even with limited features, you can still get a lot of functions.

For more information, see pricing page,

In this demo, we’ll import data from a CSV file and play with it to demonstrate some useful Airtable features.

This is our plan:

• Import data and modify data types.
• Add a third-party extension to visualize the data.

i have downloaded bank card transaction data From kaggle.com. The original records look like this:

To work with Airtable, first register for a free account. After successful login, navigate to your workspace and create a new base (this is where we store all the data).

Click the Add or Import button to upload the data. Airtable detects data fields and lets you decide which you want to import:

I have selected all the fields.

Note that price separates income and expense. So, if we want to see how much we spent, we need to filter the data to show only these records:

Similarly, you can add a condition group to narrow the data:

Let’s change the data type Date Farm. Currently, it is set to “Long Text” and we want to change it to “Date”. Click on the Manage Fields button. You should see all data types:

Select the date field type. A pop-up dialog will appear where you can select the new data type from the Rich drop-down list:

Airtable will do the conversion for us.

note that Date Appears in this format: 3/2/2022 10:11. If we want to use this data for a report, it would be better to have a separate field for month and year. But these fields do not exist. Don’t worry, because you can add new fields and calculate the data as you wish.

Click the + button in the table to add a new field, for example, “Month.” Since this is going to be a calculated field, choose a formula from the drop-down list:

If you don’t know which formula to use, check out the list with the autocomplete feature. Just start typing something, and Airtable will show you the syntax along with an example.

I want to see the year and month together, so I added another field with this formula: CONCATENATE(YEAR(Date), "-", MONTH(Date)),

I’m satisfied with the data, so let’s look at it in a chart now. We need to add the chart extension.

At the time of writing this article, you can add one extension per base for free.

Click the Extensions button and select Charts:

You can play with the X and Y axis, group by different values, etc.

Do you need feedback or help from others? Simply click the share button to send a collaboration link:

this much only! It was very easy to spin up the database and produce a visual report.

Now you know what Airtable is and how to use it to easily create a database/spreadsheet. As you have seen, no SQL or Excel knowledge is required to handle and visualize the data. It is convenient for both work and personal projects.

If you are interested in more low-code platforms, you may like my other related articles:

Thanks for reading, and happy low-coding!