Find and Replace
Infoveave Data Automation — Text & String
Point at the column, define the find-replace pairs, choose the match mode — every variation gets corrected on every scheduled run without touching the data manually.
Inconsistent text values are one of the most common data quality problems in production datasets. Brand names, category labels, status codes, and customer-entered free text frequently have multiple spellings, abbreviations, or legacy variations that break grouping, filtering, and reporting. Find and Replace solves this systematically — you define the replacement rules once, choose whether to match by exact value, substring, or regex pattern, and Infoveave applies those rules automatically across the selected column on every workflow run. No manual find-and-replace in spreadsheets, no SQL CASE WHEN blocks to maintain, and no custom script to break when new variations appear.
What Find and Replace does
Replace, standardize, and correct text values across dataset columns in Infoveave workflows. Match by substring, exact value, or regex and apply multiple replacement rules per column without code.
When to use Find and Replace
- You have a column with inconsistent text values — multiple spellings, abbreviations, or legacy labels — that need to be standardized to a canonical form for grouping, filtering, or reporting
- You want to correct known data quality issues in an automated pipeline — for example replacing all NULL string placeholders, error codes, or placeholder values with a meaningful or empty value
- You need to apply bulk transformations across a column using regex patterns — such as removing special characters, reformatting phone numbers, or normalizing postal codes
- You are preparing a dataset for a downstream system that expects specific terminology or code values and the source data uses different but equivalent labels
When to avoid it
- You need to replace values based on a condition involving another column — use a Calculated Column with conditional logic instead, since Find and Replace operates on a single column's pattern match
- The column requires complex multi-step value derivation — use a formula or Python script step rather than stacking many replacement rules
- You want to find and flag values without replacing them — use Filter on Values or Count Occurrences for detection without modification
Where it fits in your Infoveave automation
Find and Replace is one step inside a multi-step Infoveave workflow. Chain it with other activities — no code, no manual hand-offs.
Build this workflow visually in Infoveave Data Automation — drag, connect, and schedule with no infrastructure setup.
How teams use Find and Replace
Real scenarios where this transformation saves hours of manual work.
Standardize Brand Names Across Product Catalog Imports
A retail team imports product catalogs from multiple suppliers where each supplier uses slightly different brand name spellings — HP, H.P., Hewlett Packard, and HP Inc. all refer to the same brand. Find and Replace standardizes all variations to the canonical brand name in the brand_names column using substring matching and case-insensitive rules. Downstream aggregations and brand-level reports produce correct totals without manual cleanup after each import.
Normalize Machine Status Codes from Legacy MES Systems
A manufacturing operations team integrates data from a legacy manufacturing execution system where machine status codes were changed two years ago but the old codes still appear in historical exports. Find and Replace maps each legacy status code to its current equivalent in the status column — for example replacing MAINT with SCHEDULED_MAINTENANCE and ERR with FAULT. Downstream dashboards and SLA calculations use consistent current codes without needing to maintain a lookup table.
Clean Up Environment Labels in Deployment Pipeline Logs
A DevOps team processes deployment logs where environment labels are inconsistently entered — prod, production, PROD, and Production all appear in the environment column. Find and Replace normalizes all variants to lowercase production using case-insensitive complete value matching. Log aggregation, alert routing, and deployment frequency metrics all use consistent environment labels without the team manually scrubbing log records.
See Find and Replace in action
Input data (left) is transformed using the configuration below. The output table (right) is ready for dashboards or downstream steps.
brand_namesSubstringCase-InsensitiveHP → HP Inc. | Fastrack → Fastrack Inc.Input Data
| Product ID | Category | brand_names |
|---|---|---|
| P001 | Smartphone | Apple, Samsung, Google |
| P002 | Laptop | Dell, HP, Lenovo |
| P003 | Headphones | Bose, Sony, Sennheiser |
| P004 | TV | LG, Samsung, Sony |
| P005 | Smartwatch | Fastrack, Garmin, Apple |
Output Data
| Product ID | Category | brand_names |
|---|---|---|
| P001 | Smartphone | Apple, Samsung, Google |
| P002 | Laptop | Dell, HP Inc., Lenovo |
| P003 | Headphones | Bose, Sony, Sennheiser |
| P004 | TV | LG, Samsung, Sony |
| P005 | Smartwatch | Fastrack Inc., Garmin, Apple |
Configuration
Key fields to configure in the Infoveave workflow builder. Full reference available in the documentation.
Column Map
Define one or more columns to apply replacement rules to, each with its own independent matching configuration. A single Find and Replace step can standardize multiple columns simultaneously — for example cleaning both a brand_name column and a status column in one step — with different rules and matching modes per column.
Matching Mode
Three options control how the search term is matched against cell values. Complete Value requires the entire cell to equal the search term. Substring finds the pattern anywhere within a cell, allowing partial replacements without affecting surrounding text. Regex Pattern enables full regular expression syntax for complex structural matching like phone number formats, postal codes, or patterns with variable content.
Replacement Pairs
Each column supports multiple Find-Replace pairs. All pairs are applied in sequence on every matching row. For substring mode, each pair replaces only the matched portion and leaves the rest of the cell unchanged — making it possible to fix one abbreviation in a comma-separated list without losing the other values.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about Find and Replace in Infoveave.
Also in Text & String — and what runs before & after
Transformations in the same family as Find and Replace, often chained together in the same Infoveave workflow.
Part of Infoveave Data Automation
80+ transformations. Zero manual steps.
Find and Replace is one of over 80 transformation activities available inside Infoveave workflows. Chain transformations together — no code, no exports, no waiting for IT.
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