Grouping Database Views by Formulas

Learn how to group Notion database views by formula output.

It is possible to group a database view by a formula property in Notion.

If you’d like to learn the basics of database grouping, check out this section in my database guide:

Notion Databases: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide
Databases are Notion’s most powerful feature. This guide will teach you everything about them – including views, filters, sorts, grouping, and more!
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When grouping a view by a formula property, the data type of the formula’s return value (i.e the output) determines your grouping options.

Notion formulas can output seven different data types:

Data TypeExamples
String"King of the Pirates"
Number9001
Boolean (called Checkbox in Notion)true, false
Date"2022-11-11T12:00:00Z"
List[1, 2, 3]
Person🧔🏻‍♂️ Thomas Frank
Page📄 College Info Geek

When your formula outputs a string value, you’ll have the following grouping options:

  • Exact Name
  • Alphabetical (using the first letter of the output)

With number output, grouping is done by number ranges. The following options will be available:

  • Group Range (e.g. 0 – 1,000,000)
  • Group Every – a.k.a. the interval (e.g. 0 – 99,999, 100,000 – 199,999…)

When the formula returns a date, the following options will be available:

  • Relative
  • Day
  • Week
  • Month
  • Year

Finally, when the formula returns a Boolean/Checkbox value, your view will be grouped by row that are checked vs. unchecked (no additional options are available).

This example database contains four separate views; each one is grouped by a formula property that returns data of a different type – string, number, date, and Boolean/Checkbox.

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About the Author

My name is Thomas Frank, and I'm a Notion-certified writer, YouTuber, and template creator. I've been using Notion since 2018 to organize my personal life and to run my business and YouTube channel. In addition to this formula reference, I've created a free Notion course for beginners and several productivity-focused Notion templates. If you'd like to connect, follow me on Twitter.

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Fill out the form below and I’ll answer as soon as I can! ~Thomas

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Fill out the form below and I’ll answer as soon as I can! ~Thomas