Have you found yourself repeating the same data within Notion, or that you want to refer to the same data in multiple places?  Or worse, you want to change one piece of data that affects multiple areas.  Essentially you need an editable variable within Notion.

In this article I will show you how to create, step-by-step.:

• Variables for currency conversion - this could be applied to all sorts of mathematical calculations such as share prices, product prices or other conversations.
• Variables to dynamically change text - this is particularly useful if you create Notion templates for others.

This article assumes you have good knowledge of databases and formula fields in Notion.

Understanding the Basics of Variables in Notion

The simple example you will create will look like this when we are finished.

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Important note: Notion doesn’t have variable features yet, so the methods described in this article are “unofficial”.  I have written this to help others, spark ideas and I am also interested in how other people go about solving this problem.

I came up with the approach for the conversion variables when trying to create currency conversion within a passive income tracker.  This in turn came from a personal challenge to see if I could transfer one of my spreadsheets to Notion.

When considering writing this article I did look around and found Matthias Frank fantastic overview and ideas for using page titles with references for variables.  I have incorporated this into this example.  Credit for this idea is Matthias’ and his website and article are fantastic resources that you should check out here.

So, let’s create an example step-by-step to teach the approaches.  I have made call outs for those who just want a quick reference on how to do this themselves.  This article assumes you are comfortable with databases, database views and Notion.

Step-by-step walk through

Set-up the databases

Let’s create the databases we need:

1. Create a new page in Notion, call it “Variables Example”.
2. Create an in-line database called “Variables”.
3. Change the default “Tag” field to be called “Purpose” and make type text.
4. Create a new field, type number and call it “Exchange Rate”.

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This database, as the name suggests will hold our variables.  The name field will be used for the name of the variable, or in the case of the test variables as the data itself (all will become clear).  The purpose is a description of what the variable is and used for.  The exchange rate will hold the data for the conversation,  You can rename this if using it for other conversation methods.

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1. Create a new in-line database called “Global Investments Example”.
2. Change the default “Tag” field to be called “Total Local Currency” and make type number, making it comma separated.
3. Create a new field, type relation and call it “Variables”. Link it to “Variables Example”, just a 1 one-way connection - this will then allow us to create a roll up.
4. Create another new field, type rollup. Set Relation to the “Variables” field, with the *Property to “*Exchange”. For Calculate, do more options -> sum. This is really important as it brings the value over as a number rather than a string/word. Call it “Exchange Rate”. See the image to the right.

Finally create a new field, type formula and call it “Total Pounds”, with the formula Total Local Currency*Exchange Rate.

That’s the two databases set-up.  Let’s add some data to show you how it works.  We will then tidy up the views to make it easier to read and use.

Add dummy data

1. In the “Variables Example” database add the below data.