Data fields in event and profile forms can be linked to other forms through linked calculations. Often, this information is linked from the person's profile, but information can also be linked from one event form to another. Some examples of fields that are frequently linked into forms are emergency contact details, position within the organization, sport or availability.
Likewise, Personal details fields can be used to link information from a person's account to an event or profile form.
The reason that this is done is to facilitate quicker, more efficient workflows. Commonly repeated information doesn’t need to be re-entered if it can be drawn from elsewhere in the site. This saves time, but, importantly, also maintains data consistency.
Linking data is common when data is only entered once (e.g. nationality) or in one place (e.g. date of birth). There is no limit to how often a value can be linked and a linked calculation can display a minimum, maximum, first or last value if there are multiple records.
It is important to note that linked calculations only reference data from records saved prior to the date of the current form. That is, a form displaying a linked value will not contain values saved with more recent dates.