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What this does

The Reject duplicate values setting checks whether the value a respondent enters already exists in the same Airtable field across all records in the table. If a match is found, the form shows an error and prevents submission. This runs as a real-time check. The respondent sees the error as soon as they move away from the field, before they even try to submit.

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When to use it

  • Unique email registration: prevent the same email from being submitted twice
  • Unique order or ticket IDs: ensure each record has a distinct identifier
  • Unique usernames or slugs: enforce uniqueness on a text field
  • Unique barcode entries: prevent the same barcode from being scanned into two records

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How to enable it

1

Click the field

Click the field in the canvas to open its settings panel.
2

Expand the Validation section

Scroll down to the Validation section.
3

Toggle 'Reject duplicate values' on

Enable the toggle. No further configuration is needed.

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How the check works

When the respondent finishes typing and moves away from the field, Filla queries the Airtable table for any existing record where that field has the same value. If a match is found, the form shows an error and the respondent cannot submit. The check is case-sensitive for text fields. John@example.com and john@example.com are treated as different values.
The duplicate check queries your live Airtable table, so it reflects the current state of your data in real time. If a matching record is deleted between when the respondent filled the form and when they submitted, the check would pass.

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Editor indicator

When Reject duplicate values is on, the field shows a teal No duplicates tag in the top-right corner of its card in the editor canvas.

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Common questions

It checks all records in the table, regardless of any view or filter you’ve set on the form. The check cannot be scoped to a view.
A default error message appears. Currently there is no option to customize the duplicate rejection error message (unlike custom validation rules, which have a customizable error message field).
In edit mode (when updating an existing record), the duplicate check ignores the current record’s own value. This prevents the respondent from seeing a false duplicate error when they haven’t changed the field.
Reject duplicates is available on text, email, URL, phone, and barcode fields. It is not applicable to linked record fields, which have their own count limits.