Basics
Transform
Change column apparance
The Transform tool is a multi-purpose tool that can be used to change both text and numeric columns. Its purpose is to format the given column into a certain shape, such as making a text column UPPERCASE or rounding a decimal columns to 2 decimals.
Configuration
The Transform tool is comprised of two required input.
1
Select Column(s)
Select the column(s) you want to transform. You can choose multiple columns at the same time.
2
Select Transformation
Choose how you would like to change your column(s) from the options below:
| Option | Description | Column format requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Upper Case | CHANGES COLUMN CONTENT TO UPPERCASE | Text |
| Lower Case | changes column content to lowercase | Text |
| Title Case | Changes Column Content To Titlecase | Text |
| Left | Get the first x number of characters of a column | Text |
| Right | Get the last x number of characters of a column | Text |
| Length | Set the maximum x number of characters of a column | Text |
| Round | Round a numeric column to x number of decimals | Numeric |
| Ceil | Round up to nearest integer/whole number | Numeric |
| Floor | Round down to nearest integer/whole number | Numeric |
| Trim | Remove trailing/leading whitespace and tabs | Text |
| Escape Special Characters | Text | |
| HTML to Text | Text |
When To Use
The Transform tool is a great when you need to reformat text or numeric columns for consistent data presentation, such as:
- Transforming two ID columns to UPPERCASE to ensure consistency before using them in the Combine tool (join)
- If you’re worried your data has leading/traling whitespace, you can use the Trim functionality in the Transform to account for that. This can be relevant when using the Combine tool to join data sets, with the Group By tool for aggregating, etc. Basically, anytime you see some behaviour you don’t expect from your columns, it could be because you need to Trim the columns first.
- Use the Round (2) functionality to ensure you have 2 decimals across all your numeric columns in your output
- Streamline your address column using the Title Case functionality to make sure all components of the address are Capitalized