Shape · Columns

Replace Values

Swaps text in a column for other text, such as 'N/A' to blank or 'NY' to 'New York'. Each rule replaces its text wherever it appears in a value, as plain text or a pattern.

Also known as: Find and replace, recode

How it works

Pick the Column, then click Add replacement for each pair of find value and replace with. A plain find replaces that text wherever it occurs inside a value, not only whole values, so NY also changes NYC; tick regex to make the find an RE2 pattern that replaces every match and may use \1 for a capture group. Rules run in order, each on the result of the one before, and a rule with an empty find is skipped. The column is treated as text, so a number column comes out as text. The Output column box leaves the column in place when blank or appends a new column.

Inputs and outputs

Inputs

data — Table

Outputs

data — Table

Settings

The Attributes panel with a Replace Values node selected.

The Attributes panel of Replace Values, as in the app: the controls work, but nothing runs — there is no data behind it.

The same settings, as the Assistant writes them

{
  column: string
  replacements: [{ from: string, to: string, regex: boolean }]
  outputColumn?: string
}

regex false = replace the literal text; regex true = from is an RE2 regex replacing every match (DuckDB regexp_replace) and to may use \1 for a group, e.g. from "[^0-9]" to "" keeps only digits

Example

A status column mixes N/A, n/a and real values, and a phone column has punctuation. On status add N/A to blank and n/a to blank. On phone add one rule with regex ticked, find [^0-9], replace with nothing, and write to phone_digits.

phone	phone_digits
+44 (0)20 7946-0958	4402079460958
NULL	NULL

Select Columns — Keeps only the columns you pick and drops the rest.
Rename — Gives columns new names. Type old-to-new pairs, or let the data decide at run time: take the names from the first row (which is then dropped), from a names table on a second input, or from an expression over each old name.
Cast Types — Changes a column's type, such as text to number or text to date. You choose what happens to a value that won't convert: stop the run, or make it blank with or without a warning.
Parse — Turns messy text into real values: dates and times, numbers with separators or currency signs, true/false, durations, measurements with units, and coordinates.
Add Column — Adds a column worked out by a formula, a fixed value, today's date or the current time, or a parameter. For example, margin = Price − Cost. Excel's finance functions such as PMT work here by name; see Formulas and finance functions.
Multi-field Formula — Applies one formula to many columns at once, such as rounding every price column. Overwrite the columns or write new ones beside them.
Multi-row Formula — Works out a column from the current row and its neighbours, including the column's own value on the previous row. Use it for fill-down, running totals or carrying the last value forward.
Fill Missing — Replaces blanks with a fixed value, an empty string, or the previous or next value, or drops those rows. It can also drop rows or columns that are entirely empty.
Replace via Mapping — Swaps values in one or more columns using a second table of from → to pairs, such as a code list turning 'NY' into 'New York'. Values with no match stay as they are, or fail the run if you choose.
Interpolate NULLs — Fills blank numbers by estimating from the known values around them, in a straight line or by taking the nearest one. For example, missing sensor readings.
Clip Values — Caps numbers at a lower and/or upper bound. Anything below becomes the minimum, anything above becomes the maximum.
Bin — Turns a number into a labelled band, using your own break points or equal-width buckets. For example, ages into 0–17, 18–64 and 65+.
Format Table — Sets how columns print in previews and reports: currency, percent, decimals, thousands separators, date masks, alignment and hidden columns. The values themselves don't change.
Format to Text — Turns a number, date or time column into formatted text: thousands separators, fixed decimals, currency or a date pattern. The pattern can come from another column, row by row. Unlike Format Table, this changes the data.
Audit Stamp — Adds columns that record when the row was loaded, from which source, and in which run. Use it before writing to a warehouse so you can trace every row.