Hello, I try to figure out how to keep the number of filtered collection items in a variable so I can present this number to the user.
When checking the value of the total number of filtered items it shows 3 - this is the collection list formula.
When I try “All jobs.total” it shows 6.
The same happens when I try to present this number outside of the collection list, it always shows the total length of the collection. Is there any workaround?
Hi @Cichy,
There are two ways you could do this:
1- you could add the filter at collection level in the “Data” menu so that the length of array on the page would include only the filtered data. In that case, you would need to add a workflow action to refetch the collection on the page whenever a user filters data
2- you could get the length of your filtered array with a filterByKey formula wrapped inside a length formula like we did in the example below
In the example below, we filter an array of “jobs” that have “part-time” as the value in the “type” column:
As you can see, there is only 1 result on the page but the “jobs” array length is still 11 because we are applying the filter on the page, not at collection level int he data menu.
So in our filter, instead of binding to the length of the “jobs” array:
We need to bind to the length of the filtered “jobs” array based on the “type” key:
What the highlighted part of the formula is saying is:
If you hover over the filterByKey formula in the editor (or any other formula for that matter), you can see how it works:
Hello Joyce, thank you for such a rich explanation! I am not sure if it is my use case. I have two search fields - one for position and one for location and the list is dynamically filtered once the fields are filled:
So as far as I understand, I can use filterbyKey if had predetermined property to be recognized by this function. But in my case the user can type anything and list is refiltered on the fly.
Ha! Great point!
You should be able to apply a similar logic with the contains formula:
In your case, the formula might get a bit complex since you have two search fields but it should be doable 
The idea is that you want to bind the “20 Results” text to a formula that filters through your array of jobs in the same way that your two search fields filter through your list of jobs.
Does that make sense?
If you’d like to share a link to your project, I can have a look as well
Hello, I guess it makes sense, but I doubt I can do it … I need some kind of a loop to iterate over the whole collection and invoke “contains” on every collection item, count “Trues” and return the number? Maybe I should just share my project …
Is it ok to post a link to the workspace here?
Sure, go for it!
I’ll take a look asap
Hi @Cichy! Just had a look but got stuck because the contains formula seems to look for an exact match (for example if the user searches for “Manager”, it wouldn’t return the “HR Manager” item).
I’m tapping into our dev teams knowledge to help us out
Ok, with the filters set up as they are on the Collection List in the page, you could do it in Javascript but it’s not currently doable in no-code.
A no-code workaround you might try: apply the filters at Collection level and use a workflow to refetch the Collection on Change. It’s what we did to build the WeWeb Academy page.
Here’s a live Office Hour we did that explains why we did it that way and how
Let me know if it helps!
Hello Joyce. It works :).
I performed kinda stress testing of this solution. Mocked about 5000 records in Xano and added two filter groups on Collection level (two search fields triggering refetching on change). No filtering on backend. And to my surprise, it is working quite acceptable (like 2-3 seconds delay). Not sure if I can go to PROD with such solution but just wanna express my appreciation to Weweb capabilities
Awesome! That’s great to hear
Hi Joyce, do you have another workaround in mind other than a lengthy formula? My collection list has 15 filters, which will be extremely lengthy to put into a formula.
Can you elaborate on the Javascript solution?
Hey @RCS,
Did you try generating the JS formula with WeWeb Copilot? It was released for everybody today and should be really useful for your use-case.
I have and this is where I’m at
Sorry, I misread.
There’s actually a simple solution → if you filters aren’t giving any results, then the size of the results is 0.
Indeed, I imagine that results are stored in an array. Then, you could check if the length of the array (using a nocode formula) is equal to 0, then bind the display of ‘no results’ to this condition.
Does that make sense to you?
