Automatically Remove Empty/Deleted Reference Field Entries?

Kyan Lynch

I have several tables with fields referencing entries to other tables. I am now realizing (later than is ideal), that when an entry is deleted in one table, it is not removed from a reference field in another table. Rather, when it is a list-type reference field, a blank entry remains, as seen here:
[Screenshot 2022-09-29 102755.png]This is causing issues in my app, because it looks like there are associated items, but there aren't.  

Obviously, I wish that I had added a step to remove reference field entries from other tables when I delete a given record. I can still do that, but it'll take a lot of time. Is there a setting I can enable that will prevent these blank fields from remaining?

Sean Montgomery

There is not a setting to do this, but it shouldn't be that difficult to do.

You can create a background task to do this and use query all records in stream mode, foreach, and then an edit record.

Kyan Lynch

Thanks for that suggestion! Makes sense. What query method can I use to find these blank items in a list? Would it be where record.key_words contains ""? 

Sean Montgomery

you can just use the filter_empty filter. IT will do everything for you and return a new array that has no empty values.