Automating workflows often involves moving and transforming data between different systems. However, data rarely comes in the exact format you need. That’s where data formatting becomes essential - helping you clean, adjust, and prepare data before passing it along to the next step in your workflow.
In this guide, we’ll explain why data formatting is important and introduce the tools and helpers available in Keragon to make this process easy.
Why is Data Formatting Important?
-
Data Consistency: Ensure the data passed between apps follows the correct formats (e.g., dates, phone numbers).
-
Error Prevention: Many third-party apps require data to follow specific formats. Incorrect formatting can cause API errors.
-
Professional Presentation: Ensure text data like names, messages, and reports are clean and properly formatted.
Common Data Formatting Scenarios
-
Convert dates to a required format (e.g.,
MM/DD/YYYYtoYYYY-MM-DD). -
Clean up user input by trimming whitespace and fixing capitalization.
-
Prepare numbers for financial reports (e.g., currency symbols, rounding).
-
Extract key information from long text fields.
Data Formatting Helpers in Keragon
Keragon provides several built-in helpers that make it easy to transform data without writing code:
-
Text Helpers: Clean, format, and manipulate string values.
-
Math Helpers: Perform mathematical operations and number formatting.
-
Date & Time Helpers: Convert between date formats, calculate date differences, and add/subtract time intervals.
- JSON Helpers: Working with JSON data like parsing JSON and stringifying it.
- Data Helpers: Working with complex data structures and adding custom code steps.
-
PDF Helpers: Parse, and manage PDF files.
-
CSV Helpers: Parse, and manage CSV files.
Each helper is accessible directly from the properties panel and can be added as an action step in your workflow.
Example Use Case
Scenario: You’re receiving user-submitted data through a form, but users often enter names in inconsistent formats (e.g., "john doe", "JOHN DOE"). You want to clean this data before saving it to your CRM.
Solution:
-
Use the Text Helper to capitalize the first letter of each word in the user’s name.
-
Map the formatted name to the CRM action’s input using the Variable Selector.
By understanding and applying data formatting tools, you can build more reliable, professional, and error-free workflows.