Transform and clean data with AI formula

Welcome back! Today we're exploring Coldout's AI formula generator—a powerful feature that helps you transform, clean, and manipulate your data without writing code. Let's dive into how formulas work and what you can do with them.

What are Coldout formulas?

Coldout formulas are powered by Coldoutscript, a JavaScript-based language that transforms your data row by row. But here's the best part: you don't need to know JavaScript. Coldout's AI formula generator lets you describe what you want in plain English, and it writes the formula for you automatically.

How to access the formula generator

In your Coldout table, look for the formula column option or click "Add enrichment" and select "Formula." You'll see the AI formula generator interface. Here, you can type what you want to do with your data in natural language, and Coldout will create the formula for you.

Understanding formula basics

When you reference a column in your formula, you use double curly braces. For example, if you have an email column, you'd reference it as Email. Coldout automatically passes the value from that column into your formula for each row.

Behind the scenes, Coldout formulas have access to standard JavaScript, the Lodash library for data manipulation, Moment.js for dates and times, and hundreds of Excel and Google Sheets functions like VLOOKUP, IF, SUM, and CONCATENATE.

Don't worry if that sounds technical—the AI generator handles all of this for you.

Practical formula examples

Let me show you real-world examples of what you can create with Coldout's formula generator.

Example 1: extract the domain from an email

You have email addresses and want just the domain name—like turning "john@company.com" into "company.com."

Simply tell the AI: "Extract the domain from Email"

Coldout generates the formula, and boom—you have a column with just the domains. Perfect for grouping contacts by company or building account-based lists.

Example 2: use fallback logic

You have multiple columns with similar data, but some are empty. You want to use the first available value.

Tell the AI: "Use LinkedIn URL if available; otherwise use LinkedIn Profile"

This creates a smart fallback—if the first column has data, use it; if not, pull from the backup column. No more manual checking or empty fields.

Example 3: extract specific text patterns

Maybe you have Twitter handles that include the @ symbol, but you only want the username.

Prompt: "Extract the text after @ in Twitter Handle"

Your formula strips out the @ symbol and gives you clean usernames. Now you can use them in URLs or mentions without formatting issues.

Example 4: complex text manipulation

Here's a more advanced example. You have a city column with entries like "San Francisco, California Area" but you only want "San Francisco" in quotes.

Prompt: "Split city by comma, keep everything before the first comma, remove 'Area' if present, then add quotes"

The AI generates a multi-step formula that cleans and formats your data exactly how you need it. This would take multiple manual steps in Excel, but Coldout does it in one formula.

Example 5: combining multiple columns

You want to create custom identifiers by combining data from different columns.

Prompt: "Extract the first word from Column_1, combine with Column_2, then remove all non-letter characters"

Maybe you're creating usernames, reference codes, or unique identifiers. The formula extracts, combines, and cleans everything in one step.

Example 6: date calculations

You have creation dates and closed dates, and you want to know how many days passed between them.

Prompt: "Calculate the number of days between Created Date and Closed Date"

Coldout uses Moment.js behind the scenes to handle date math automatically. This is perfect for calculating sales cycle length, response times, or aging reports.

Testing your formulas

Always test on a few rows first. Check the output to make sure the formula is doing exactly what you want. If it's not quite right, refine your prompt and regenerate. The AI learns from your adjustments.

Pro tips

Tip 1: Be explicit in your prompts. Instead of "clean this data," say "remove spaces, convert to lowercase, and remove special characters from Email."

Tip 2: Reference multiple columns when needed. "Combine First Name and Last Name with a space between."

Tip 3: Use formulas for validation. "Check if Email contains an @ symbol. Return 'Valid' or 'Invalid'."

Tip 4: Chain formulas together. Create one formula to clean data, another to format it, and a third to categorize it. Each formula refines your data further.

Wrapping up

Coldout formulas powered by AI turn complex data transformations into simple English commands. Extract domains, combine columns, calculate dates, format text, build conditional logic, and manipulate arrays—all without writing code.

Describe what you want, let AI generate the formula, and watch your data transform row by row. It's spreadsheet power with AI simplicity!