Create one-to-many or many-to-one table relationships overview

In Microsoft Dataverse 1:N (one-to-many) or N:1 (many-to-one) relationships define how two tables are related to each other.

Before you create a custom table relationship, evaluate whether using an existing table relationship would meet your requirements. More information: Create new metadata or use existing metadata?

Watch this video for a quick overview about how to create a table, a table relationship, and columns:

There are two designers you can use to create and edit 1:N (one-to-many) or N:1 (many-to-one) relationships:

Designer	Description
Power Apps portal	Provides an easy streamlined experience, but some special settings are not available. More information: Create and edit 1:N (one-to-many) or N:1 (many-to-one) table relationships in Power Apps portal
Solution explorer	Not as easy, but provides for more flexibility for less common requirements. More information: Create and edit 1:N (one-to-many) or N:1 (many-to-one) table relationships using solution explorer

Note

You can also create new table relationship in your environment using the following:

• In model-driven apps, select New Column from the form editor and create a Lookup column.
  More information: Add, configure, move, or delete columns on a form
• Create a new Lookup column for the related table.
  More information: Create and edit columns
• Import a solution that contains the definition of the table relationship.
  More information: Import, update, and export solutions
• Use Power Query to create new tables and fill them with data.
  More information: Add data to a table in Dataverse by using Power Query.
• A developer can use Metadata services to write a program to create and update table relationships.
  More information: Table relationship definitions

Information in this topic will help you choose which designer you can use.

You should use the Power Apps portal to create and edit 1:N (one-to-many) or N:1 (many-to-one) table relationships unless you need to address any of the following requirements:

• Configure column mappings
• Configure navigation pane options for model-driven app
• Configure relationship behaviors
• Define whether the relationship is hidden in advanced find.
• Make a Hierarchical relationship

Community tools

table Relation Diagram Creator is a tool that XrmToolbox community developed for Dataverse. Please see the Developer tools for Dataverse topic for more community developed tools.

Note

The community tools are not a product of Microsoft and does not extend support to the community tools. If you have questions pertaining to the tool, please contact the publisher. More Information: XrmToolBox.

See also

Create and edit relationships between tables
Create and edit 1:N (one-to-many) or N:1 (many-to-one) table relationships in Power Apps portal
Create and edit 1:N (one-to-many) or N:1 (many-to-one) table relationships using solution explorer
Developer documentation: Customize table relationship metadata
Developer documentation: table relationship eligibility