Regex formulas
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Rachid Lghachi
I greatly appreciate the platform's flexibility and powerful features. However, I've noticed a feature that could significantly enhance our data manipulation capabilities—namely, the inclusion of regex (regular expression) functionality in formulas, similar to what's available in Airtable.
Regex is incredibly useful for finding, replacing, and extracting specific character patterns within data. This functionality would allow users to perform complex text operations directly within SmartSuite, such as searching for specific patterns, replacing text strings, and extracting information from larger text blocks. These capabilities would streamline workflows and increase productivity by making data manipulation more precise and efficient.
I believe this addition would be a valuable enhancement for many users, myself included, and I would love to see it implemented in future updates.
Nate Montgomery @ SmartSuite
Jon Darbyshire
Hiya Rachid Lghachi, thanks for this post! I have a few more questions for you:
- Can you provide specific examples of the types of data manipulation tasks you're currently performing that would benefit from regex functionality?
- Are there any specific regex functions you would like to see implemented first?
- How often do you anticipate using this regex functionality in your workflows?
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Rachid Lghachi
Jon Darbyshire
Thank you for your response and for considering my request. Here are some details on how I would use regex functionality in SmartSuite:
Examples of Data Manipulation Tasks:
Validation of Input Formats: For example, ensuring that phone numbers follow a specific format (like +33 1 23 45 67 89 for France) or that email addresses are properly formatted.
Extraction of Specific Data: For instance, extracting postal codes, order numbers, or URLs from longer text strings. This is particularly useful for filtering and extracting web links or specific identifiers in descriptions or notes.
Text Replacement: Correcting common errors in descriptions or notes by replacing incorrect terms with the correct ones, or standardizing formats (e.g., replacing all occurrences of "st." with "street").
Specific Regex Functions to Implement First:
Pattern Matching: The ability to detect if a string of text matches a certain pattern.
Text Substitution: Replacing parts of a string with another.
Group Extraction: Extracting specific parts of a text string that match defined sub-patterns, such as URLs or email addresses.
Anticipated Frequency of Use:
I anticipate using this functionality regularly, especially in automated processes to clean and validate input data, as well as to analyze collected textual data. These operations would be crucial for maintaining data quality and consistency in my daily workflows.
I believe adding regex functionality would be a valuable enhancement to SmartSuite, enabling more precise and efficient data manipulation.
Thank you again for considering this feature. I'm available to discuss it further if needed.