# Picklist as a subset of a table

**URL:** <https://speciforum.org/t/picklist-as-a-subset-of-a-table/4026>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Created:** [August 14, 2026, 4:00am UTC](https://speciforum.org/t/picklist-as-a-subset-of-a-table/4026 "2026-08-14T04:00:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leobrimblecombe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecd19e/32.png) [@leobrimblecombe](https://speciforum.org/u/leobrimblecombe)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2026, 4:00am UTC](https://speciforum.org/t/picklist-as-a-subset-of-a-table/4026/1 "2026-08-14T04:00:48Z")

</div>

Hello,

Quick question about setting up a picklist: we want to have a picklist that gives the option for certain agents but not the full agent field (i.e. only agents that fit a certain criteria - institutions only/specific institutions) Is there a way to use the picklist creator to limit it to a conditional subset of agents?

I have a workaround of a user-defined picklist where the Title is the name of the agent and the Value is the AgentID which works absolutely fine for this situation as the set of agents is a pretty limited subset and it’s easy to join the value on the agentID in the backend.

I did consider setting up a user-defined picklist via backend SQL that grabs all AgentType = 0 and puts them into one singular picklist if I do need to do this with a larger subset in the future, which I don’t imagine would be too hard, but I did wonder if maybe I’m just missing a functionality or trick to doing this directly via the agent field or through the picklist creation?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bronwyn](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/speciforum.org/bronwyn/32/5742_2.png) [@bronwyn](https://speciforum.org/u/bronwyn)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://speciforum.org/t/picklist-as-a-subset-of-a-table/4026/2 "2026-08-17T20:15:38Z")

</div>

Hi @leobrimblecombe,

Great question!

No, adding a condition or otherwise filtering results of a query combo box field is not possible at this time. I’ve opened a discussion on GitHub for this, though: [Allow Filtering Results of a Query Combo Box Field · specify/specify7 · Discussion #8428 · GitHub](https://github.com/specify/specify7/discussions/8428).

We are also interested to know if other Specify users are looking for this capability too. I will add your post to the New Feature Requests category in hopes of additional feedback!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nfshoobs](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/speciforum.org/nfshoobs/32/3979_2.png) [@nfshoobs](https://speciforum.org/u/nfshoobs)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 7:06pm UTC](https://speciforum.org/t/picklist-as-a-subset-of-a-table/4026/3 "2026-08-19T19:06:23Z")

</div>

I think allowing a picklist to be configured to allow only a subset of a table conditionally would be a very powerful feature. It could solve a couple problems we have in our database. Count us (all of the OSU collections) in!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/specifysoftware/original/2X/1/18a843c97bc32b40e8ad0e035755bc88ffaacaf7.svg) [@system](https://speciforum.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2026, 7:06pm UTC](https://speciforum.org/t/picklist-as-a-subset-of-a-table/4026/4 "2026-08-26T19:06:51Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.