Every table, view, field, record, automation, interface, user, and more in Airtable has an Airtable ID. This is typically a three letter prefix that identifies the type of object, followed by 14 alphanumeric characters that identify the specific object.
When using Airtable, you rarely ever need to access these internal IDs. However, sometimes it is useful to know these ids, such as when working with scripting and prefilling forms.
General tips:
- Whenever you duplicate a base, all of the internal Airtable IDs also change!
- These IDs are also available in third party tools and scripts that expose schema information.
Record ID
Prefix: rec
Ways to find it:
- Create a formula field with the formula
RECORD_ID() - Look in the url of the browser when a record is open in the expanded view
- Available in an automation when the record is a triggering record or a found record
- Get it through scripting
Tips:
- Do not confuse this with the primary field value of a record, or with any fields that you may be named “id”.
- Useful when prefilling a linked record field where the primary field value might change or might not be unique
- Useful when working with a third party integration source that will need to get a particular record
- Essential to understand if you work with scripts
- Guaranteed to be unique across a table, and probably is unique across a base.
- Except for the convoluted method for getting a table ID, this is the only ID available through formula fields.
Table ID
Prefix: tbl
Ways to find it:
- Look in the url when the table is open
- Get it through scripting
- Look at the API documentation for the table
- Create a formula field based on a button field that opens an extension, such as Page Designer, that is configured for that table.
Tips:
- Useful when writing code where the table name might change
- Useful when generating urls for records
View ID
Prefix: viw
Ways to find it:
- Look in the url when the view is open
- Get it through scripting
- Look at the API documentation for the table
Tips:
- Useful when writing code where the view name might change
- Optional when generating urls for records
- A form view has both a view ID and a share ID. The url for publishing the form is the share ID, not the view ID.
Field ID
Prefix: fld
Ways to find it:
- Get it from the “Manage Fields” tool for the table. You may need to unhide it".
- Get it from the url for a specific field. (Right-click the field name, and select “Copy field URL”)
- Get it from the url for a specific cell. (Right-click the cell, and select “Copy cell URL”)
- Get it through scripting
- Look at the API documentation for the table
- Use my “Field List” extension
Tips:
- Useful when prefilling forms where the field name might change
- Useful when writing code where the field name might change
- Useful when debugging scripts
Other IDs
Other internal IDs are not used as frequently and I do not have time to write them up now.
Additional abbreviations:
- base ID prefix: app
- user ID prefix: usr
- workspace ID prefix: wsp
- automation ID prefix: wfl
- automation trigger ID prefix: wtr
- automation action ID prefix: wac
- interface ID prefix: pag
Note that elements within an Interface can be found in the url when the element is selected. However, these interface element IDs do not follow the same format as other IDs. They do not have a consistent three letter prefix and they are much shorter than 14 alphanumeric characters.
