Pasting into a form versus pasting into data field view. Specifically issue with Tab character

[WaitroseCarpark]

Hello all

I am trying to copy/paste a line from an HTML table into airtable. The table has several columns which are delimited by tabs (unicode 0009).

Nothing unusual so far...

I created a form so I could paste in the line into that maps onto a single field. When you do this it retains the tabs in the string...BUT...I am struggling to find a way of sanitising this data and splitting out the columns.

Yes, you can paste directly into the table field and split it out that way. I don't want this, I want to be able to paste the string/line directly into a form.

• Using "\t" in formulas doesn't work.
• With Windows 11 and pasting from Chrome, CTRL+SHIFT+V does not strip out any tabs (it's for formatting only)

So how else can I strip out these pesky tabs?

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

You could only handle that in Airtable by writing custom JavaScript code.

Question: If you paste the line into a Google Sheets cell, does Google Sheets recognize what you are trying to do? Does Google Sheets automatically split up the data into multiple columns for you?

If so, I would just paste into a new row of a Google Sheets spreadsheet that Make is monitoring using its Google Sheets automations, and then have Make automatically move the information into Airtable using its Airtable integrations.

[WaitroseCarpark]

Excellent thank you @ScottWorld 

I've never used scripts before but using an automation to fire it as soon as the form was submitted was easy. I got ChatGPT to write me the script. Here if anyone is interested:

let table = base.getTable('Your Table Name'); // Replace 'Your Table Name' with your actual table name
let query = await table.selectRecordsAsync();

for (let record of query.records) {
    let originalString = record.getCellValue('String Input Field');
    
    // Check if the 'String Input Field' field is not null before replacing tab characters
    if (originalString !== null) {
        let updatedString = originalString.replace(/\t/g, ' '); // Replace tabs with spaces
    
        // Update the 'String Input Field (Sanitised)' field with the sanitized string
        await table.updateRecordAsync(record, {
            'String Input Field (Sanitised)': updatedString
        });
    }
}