With Formatter, you can use the Text extract function to perform a specific search within your text and return the first match found. This is useful if you have a lot of text (such as an email) and only want to use a certain part of it (such as the sender's phone number).
1. Add the Formatter app
- In the Zap editor, add a new action step and select Format.
- Click the Event dropdown menu and select Text.
- Click Continue.
- Click the Transform dropdown menu and select one of the following:
2. Extract Email Address
This function looks for a string of letters, numbers, and certain symbols (such as periods, plus signs, and dashes), immediately followed by an @ symbol, and then a site domain such as example.com.
- What it will find: ford.prefect42@example.com
- What it won't find: Arthur Dent AT example.com
3. Extract Number
This function looks for one or more digits in a row. It can accommodate a single period used as a decimal separator, or multiple commas for digit grouping.
- What it will find: 1,234,567 or 12.34
- What it won't find: 123-456-789
4. Extract Phone Number
This function looks for a 10-digit phone number either in groups of 3-3-4 digits, or groups of 4-3-3 digits, with an optional country code and extension number. The numbers can be separated by hyphens -, periods ., or spaces.
Area codes will be recognized when they are surrounded by parentheses, such as in the phone number (123) 456-7890.
To recognize an extension, the function looks for a number following either x, ext, or extension followed by the extension number.
- What it will find: +1 (123) 456-7890 ext. 3
- What it won't find: 123 456 7890
5. Extract URL
This function looks for a string of letters, numbers, and dashes, followed by a period, then a recognized top-level domain (TLD). It can also account for an "https://" or "http://" prefix, along with one or more subdomains, folders, and query parameters.
- What it will find: zapier.com/help/create/format?testing=true
- What it won't find: www DOT example DOT com
NoteWhile this function can find most URLs, new TLDs are regularly made available, which may cause some URLs to not be found. If you find a website that was not found by this function but should have been, reach out to our support team to let us know.
If these extract functions cannot find the text you need, you can use the Extract Pattern function to create a custom solution. Given the complexity of regular expressions, our support team cannot troubleshoot or provide support for them.
If you have questions about creating a custom regular expression pattern to meet your needs, we recommend reaching out to the Zapier Community.
