# Limiting dropdown to results already in the database

**URL:** <https://forums.knack.com/t/limiting-dropdown-to-results-already-in-the-database/19861>\
**Category:** Get Answers\
**Created:** [September 20, 2025, 6:36am UTC](https://forums.knack.com/t/limiting-dropdown-to-results-already-in-the-database/19861 "2025-09-20T06:36:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Christoffel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.knack.com/christoffel/32/4645_2.png) [@Christoffel](https://forums.knack.com/u/Christoffel)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:36am UTC](https://forums.knack.com/t/limiting-dropdown-to-results-already-in-the-database/19861/1 "2025-09-20T06:36:12Z")

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I have a database of travel retailers, only 11 in the database for now, in 10 countries. You can search for a retailer by country using a dropdown for that, but that then gives the full list of all the countries that exist, including the ones where no retailer has registered yet. I need the dropdown to only show the countries that have travel retailers already registered (10 in this case). I can’t find out how to do that, can it be done at all? Using next-gen app.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/knack/original/2X/d/da3595e2866a6ee79785518ddccd2fa8edd62c97.png)

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**Author:** ![LeighBerre96926](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.knack.com/leighberre96926/32/4896_2.png) [@LeighBerre96926](https://forums.knack.com/u/LeighBerre96926)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2025, 2:05am UTC](https://forums.knack.com/t/limiting-dropdown-to-results-already-in-the-database/19861/2 "2025-09-21T02:05:49Z")

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You can do this but you need your data structures to be set up to do it.

The Country needs to be a connected table, not a field in the Travel Retailers table.

Then you would add a connection to Travel Retailers to Country. In the Country table, add a SUM field which counts the number of connected Travel Retailers. And in this search form, add a filter for that Country field to only show Country where counter is non zero.

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**Author:** ![Christoffel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.knack.com/christoffel/32/4645_2.png) [@Christoffel](https://forums.knack.com/u/Christoffel)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2025, 5:27am UTC](https://forums.knack.com/t/limiting-dropdown-to-results-already-in-the-database/19861/3 "2025-09-21T05:27:15Z")

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I can see how that would work, thanks for the reply, @LeighBerre96926 . I’ll try that out (Country is a connected table).

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**Author:** ![LeighBerre96926](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.knack.com/leighberre96926/32/4896_2.png) [@LeighBerre96926](https://forums.knack.com/u/LeighBerre96926)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2025, 5:57am UTC](https://forums.knack.com/t/limiting-dropdown-to-results-already-in-the-database/19861/4 "2025-09-21T05:57:07Z")

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FYI I tried to do this in next gen builder and couldn’t work out how … so used to classic screens. So I changed builder style to classic, made changes, then set back to Next Gen and it worked as expected.

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**Author:** ![Christoffel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.knack.com/christoffel/32/4645_2.png) [@Christoffel](https://forums.knack.com/u/Christoffel)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:41am UTC](https://forums.knack.com/t/limiting-dropdown-to-results-already-in-the-database/19861/5 "2025-09-22T06:41:17Z")

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Thanks for the update - I’ll try that too then (wasn’t getting anywhere yet).