Find and replace words

Airtable ExtensionFree!

Applicable to:

All Airtable plans

Example use case
Substituting words

Find and replace words in your Airtable easily with this free extension.

In the example below, I've created a new table to act as a dictionary. It contains two columns—(i) the "Old Text" column has the words I would like replaced, and the (ii) "New Text" column with the respective replacement words.

Here's the extension in action. Words that appear in "Old Text"—"Corpo" and "Testa", have been replaced with words in "New Text"—"Body" and "Feet", respectively.

Wanna try it out? Open this sample base-> and click on "Copy base". The example will be copied to your Airtable workspace so you play with it. If you're satisfied, you can build around the example provided, or export the functionality to your own base. See below for full instructions.

Instructions to generate the script for Airtable Automations

Create a new table containing a list of Old and New words like I've done above.
In your Airtable base, go to Extensions (top right corner), and click on Add an extension.
Search for "Scripting" and add it.
Copy and paste the follow code into the editor:
Click to copy
let settings = input.config({ title: `Substitute Formula Creator`, description: `This extension helps you create really long SUBSTITUTE() formulas for situations where you have many pieces of text that you need to substitute from the same field. To use it, you'll need to have a table that contains the words that you want to replace, and what you want to replace them with. After that, select the correct options in the fields below and it'll output your super long SUBSTITUTE() formula!`, items: [ input.config.table("table", { label: `Table that contains the old text to substitute and the new text to replace it with` }), input.config.field("oldTextField", { parentTable: `table`, label: `Field that contains the old text` }), input.config.field("newTextField", { parentTable: `table`, label: `Field that contains the new text` }), input.config.table("updateTable", { label: `Table that contains the field that the subsitute formula will be used on` }), input.config.field("updateField", { parentTable: `updateTable`, label: `Field that contains the text the substitute formula will be used on` }), ], }); let { table, oldTextField, newTextField, updateField } = settings; let query = await table.selectRecordsAsync() let formula = "" for (let r of query.records){ let oldText = r.getCellValue(oldTextField.name).trim() let newText = r.getCellValue(newTextField.name).trim() if (formula === "") { formula = `SUBSTITUTE({${updateField.name}}, "${oldText}", "${newText}")` } else { formula = `SUBSTITUTE(${formula}, "${oldText}", "${newText}")` } } output.text(formula)
Follow the instructions on the screen to select the appropriate table and field names.
Click Run, and copy the formula generated. It looks like a chain of substitutes. It looks something like: SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE( {Options}, "Corpo", "Body"), "Piede", "Feet"), "Testa", "Head"), "Kopf", "Head"), "Fuss", "Feet"), "Tête", "Head"), "Korper", "Body"), "Fuss", "Feet")
Create a new Formula field in your original table. Paste the formula copied in the previous step.

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Find and replace words

Example use caseSubstituting words

Example use case
Substituting words