Native "Single select" field type (like Baserow/Airtable)

[hari-bo]

Currently, there's no built-in way to restrict a column to a small, fixed set of values with a simple dropdown. The only workaround today is creating a separate lookup table and linking to it via a foreign key relationship which works, but adds real overhead (an extra table, an extra relationship, no per-option color) for something that in comparable tools is just a single field type.

Baserow's "Single select" field is a good reference implementation:
When creating a field, you pick type "Single select" and define a list of options directly on that field (no separate table needed)
Each option gets a color, shown as a colored pill in the grid
Renaming an option updates every row that uses it automatically
Options can be reordered, and a default option can be set

NocoDB and Airtable have essentially the same feature under the same name.

I saw that this is already documented as a project idea on the Mathesar wiki (https://wiki.mathesar.org/community/gsoc/project-ideas/single-select-data-type/), described as a configuration on top of a foreign key column which sounds like exactly the right approach given Mathesar's Postgres-native philosophy. I couldn't find an active tracking issue for it though, so I wanted to add a concrete use case and +1 the idea.

Is there any existing plan or timeline for picking this up? Happy to help test or provide feedback if it moves to an active design/implementation phase.

[zackkrida]

Thanks for this, @hari-bo. I'd like to clarify what you're looking for, because I read two of your points as contradictory:

The only workaround today is creating a separate lookup table and linking to it via a foreign key relationship which works, but adds real overhead (an extra table, an extra relationship, no per-option color)

described as a configuration on top of a foreign key column which sounds like exactly the right approach given Mathesar's Postgres-native philosophy.

The aspects of this request that we'd like to add, as "sugar" on top of the existing implementation, are:

• Colors for options
• Per-table ordering of options
• Default values

Do those cover what you're looking for?

[hari-bo]

That would be great!