Transformation Types¶

Overview¶

Transformations can be chained
SDM doesn’t handle calculations (Ex: we don’t calculate the TVA from the prices columns)

Types of Transformations¶

Transformation	Parameters	Description	Example
Capitalize	`which` (start, sentences, word, all, none)	Capitalizes specific parts of a text based on the `which` parameter.	`start`: First character only `sentences`: First character. Of each! Sentence (`.?!`) `word`: First Character Of Each Word `all`: ALL CHARACTERS `none`: all lowercase
	`mode` (strict, loose)	Defines how strict or loose the capitalization should be.	Strict: `The Sdm App Is Awesome` Loose: `The SDM App Is Awesome`
trim_whitespaces	`multiple`	Removes spaces at the beginning and end of a text string. If `multiple` is True, reduces multiple space characters between words to a single space character. ℹ️ `trim_whitespaces` preserves line breaks (`\n`) in your text. It only removes leading/trailing whitespace from each individual line.	Input: `" Hello World "` Output: `"Hello World"` With `multiple` is `True`: Input: `" I am John"` Output: `"IamJohn"`
regex	`pattern` (string)	Defines what needs to be transformed
	`substitution` (string)	Specifies the substitution text to replace the matched pattern.
	`force`	True/False	If true: SDM empties the value If false but the value doesn’t match, nothing happens
pad	`pad_character`, `pad_length`	Adds characters to the left or right of the string to reach a specific length.	Example: EAN exported from Excel like this 0003542147089. The first 3 zeros will not be imported, resulting in an invalid EAN. Setting `pad_character` to `0` and `pad_length` to the EAN length will prepend with the missing 0s.
multiply	`factor` (number)	Multiplies the input numeric value by the given factor.	Input: `5`, Factor: `10` Output: `50`

1. Capitalize¶

Adjusts the capitalization of text values.

Parameters:

name: capitalize
which: Determines what to capitalize. Options:
- "start": Capitalizes only the first character.
- "sentences": Capitalizes the first character of each sentence (default).
- "words": Capitalizes the first character of each word.
- "all": Converts the entire string to uppercase.
- "none": Converts the entire string to lowercase.
- mode: Determines the strictness of capitalization. Options:
- "strict": Uses Python's built-in capitalize() method.
- "loose": Only capitalizes the first character, leaving the rest unchanged (default).

Example:

> "hello world. how are you?" # (which="sentences", mode="loose")
# Output: "Hello world. How are you?"

2. Trim Whitespaces¶

Removes excess whitespace from the value.

Function: trim_whitespaces(value, multiple=False)

Parameters:

name: trim_whitespace
multiple: If True, replaces all multiple spaces within the string. If False only the extra spaces at the start and end of the string are replaced.

Example:

> "  Hello   world!  " # (multiple=true)
# Output: "Hello world!"

3. Regex¶

Applies a regular expression substitution to the value.

Parameters:

name: regex
pattern: The regex pattern to match.
substitution: The string to replace matched patterns with.
flags: List of regex flags to use. Options: "ascii", "multiline", "ignorecase", "dotall". Uses Python flags behind the scenes.
force: If True, returns None when the pattern doesn't match.

Example:

> "Hello123World" # (pattern=r"\\\\d+", substitution="", flags=["ignorecase"])
# Output: "HelloWorld"

Warning

Important note about escaping¶

When specifying regex patterns in the configuration JSON, backslashes need to be double-escaped

This means:

\d (regex digit) becomes \\d in the configuration
\w (regex word character) becomes \\w
A literal backslash becomes \\
Capture groups substitutions also need to be escaped twice so they become \\1, \\2, etc.

Examples:

// Simple digits removal:

{
  "transformations": [
    {
      "name": "regex",
      "pattern": "\\d+",
      "substitution": "",
      "flags": ["ignorecase"],
      "force": false
    }
  ]
}

// Input: `"Hello123World"` → Output: `"HelloWorld"`

// Extracting part of a number sequence:

{
  "transformations": [
    {
      "name": "regex",
      "pattern": "^(\\d{8})(\\d{2})$",
      "substitution": "\\1",
      "flags": ["ignorecase"],
      "force": false
    }
  ]
}

// Input: `"1234567890"` → Output: `"12345678"`

// Removing break lines:

{
  "transformations": [
    {
       "name": "regex",
       "flags": [
          "multiline"
       ],
       "force": false,
       "pattern": "\\r?\\n",
       "substitution": ""
    }
  ]
}

// Input: `"Hello\nWorld"` → Output: `"HelloWorld"`

4. Pad¶

Pads the string value to a specified length.

Parameters:

name: pad
fill: The character to use for padding.
direction: Where to add padding. Options: "left" or "right".
length: The desired total length of the string after padding.

Example:

> "123" # (fill="0", direction="left", length=5)
# Output: "00123"

5. Multiply¶

Multiplies a numeric value by a specified factor. This is useful for unit conversions (e.g., converting meters to millimeters) or applying fixed coefficients.

Parameters:

name: multiply
factor: The number by which the input value will be multiplied. Can be an integer or a decimal (float).

Example:

> 10.5 # (factor=100)
# Output: 1050.0

Usage Notes¶

Transformations run on all the fields sent to the step. During the step, when the user modifies a field in the UI, the transformation will only run on the fields that have been modified after the form has been submitted.
Transformations are applied in the order they are specified in the configuration.