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Similar to UPPER( ) and LOWER( ), PROPER( ) would take a text string as an argument, and convert it to “Proper Case”, where the first letter of every work is upper-case, and subsequent letters in the word are lower-case.

EXAMPLE:

PROPER ( “1232 DEER VALLLEY AVE” ) would return: 1232 Deer Valley Ave

USE CASE: I use AirTable in my real-estate business, where I hire virtual-assistants to enter public property data scraped from county websites (which often stores data in upper-case). That address data is used to for mail-merge to marketing letters, but unless I take abother step to convert the data to Capital case, the merged data appears ALL UPPERCASE, which makes the letter seem auto-generated.

To solve this, my workflow includes an export from AirTable out to a .csv file, then into Excel where I run a macro that converts to Proper Case, and then is imported back into AirTable, then out to our document merge partner (WebMerge).

I’d love to eliminate that last, fussy part of the workflow where I export out just to convert the text. If I have a PROPER ( ) function as described, it would greatly simplify my AirTable/WebMerge workflow.

Thanks!

All valid points, but they should and probably can find a way. :winking_face:

So far, I’ve heard only reasons it can’t be done. Where’s the innovative spirit?


I’m not giving reasons why it can’t be done. It can be done. But it would take resources and it isn’t clear that the benefit is currently worth those resources. I’m suggesting reasons why they might not have done it yet, and why they might prioritize working on other things first.

As for innovative spirit … I doubt our conversations will motivate Airtable to do (or not do) anything one way or the other. I have my own projects that I am building, that make me happy, and that will work with the currently available features.

I’m not giving reasons why it can’t be done. It can be done. But it would take resources and it isn’t clear that the benefit is currently worth those resources. I’m suggesting reasons why they might not have done it yet, and why they might prioritize working on other things first.

As for innovative spirit … I doubt our conversations will motivate Airtable to do (or not do) anything one way or the other. I have my own projects that I am building, that make me happy, and that will work with the currently available features.


Well, that’s always a concern - we don’t like to invest more than the benefits might accrue over time. Pretty sure Google and Microsoft performed those exact computations and realized the cost of chasing customer needs one-by-one and addressing the support conversations were far in excess of an architecture that made it possible to help people help themselves.

Since you bring it up, let’s talk about resources then…

The Airtable community has dozens of requests for math functions that still remain unmet. These are fairly straightforward functions and lacking an extensible model, engineers (at Airtable) have to be assigned and customers have to wait. As such, the current model to address fringe needs isn’t working well. I’ve seen many who have left Airtable because they are unable to compel the team to address their needs and there’s no alternative.

Zero function extensibility just seems like a bad idea from the get-go.

Well, that’s always a concern - we don’t like to invest more than the benefits might accrue over time. Pretty sure Google and Microsoft performed those exact computations and realized the cost of chasing customer needs one-by-one and addressing the support conversations were far in excess of an architecture that made it possible to help people help themselves.

Since you bring it up, let’s talk about resources then…

The Airtable community has dozens of requests for math functions that still remain unmet. These are fairly straightforward functions and lacking an extensible model, engineers (at Airtable) have to be assigned and customers have to wait. As such, the current model to address fringe needs isn’t working well. I’ve seen many who have left Airtable because they are unable to compel the team to address their needs and there’s no alternative.

Zero function extensibility just seems like a bad idea from the get-go.


But Google and Microsoft have much larger user bases, especially users who have a basic understanding of what a spreadsheet is and what a function is. Both also already have reputations as places where people can use code. Airtable’s users as a whole are in a different place.

Working well? No. But scripting and automations go a long way in dealing with these fringe cases.

If Airtable knew about these cases, then Airtable decided that it wasn’t worth the resources at that time. There are soooo many things about Airtable that could use improvements.

@Adam_Parker Still a workaround, but instead of creating a lot of columns to achieve this, you can also use the formula mentioned here: We still need a simple TITLE CASE (PROPER) function alongside UPPER and LOWER - #6 by gxjansen

Has this function been added? This would be super helpful! 

How is this still a thing in 2024?

Hey folks, this is the formula I made to convert a text string to simple title case:

REPLACE(
LOWER(
TRIM(
{Name Text})),
1,1,
UPPER(
LEFT({Name Text},1)))
 
It does the following, in order:
  • Trim extra spaces from the beginning and end of the text string
  • Convert the whole string to lower case
  • Replace the first letter of the string with an upper case version of itself

It won't do complicated title case (McDonnell, Van Der Holt, etc). If I have the time I'll update with some fancy search and replace for those things.

It's simple enough that I'm going to deploy it wherever I need title case, but it sure would be nice if there was a one-step formula available instead.

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