Tips for Dealing with Data
Cheat sheet for Makers 💁♂️
🔢 Dealing with numbers and decimals
Getting a random number [1–100]
Math.floor(Math.random()*100)Changing the number of digits to appear after the decimal point
parseFloat('{{decimal_value}}').toFixed(2) // 2 digits after the point
//
// e.g.
// parseFloat('12.438324').toFixed(2) returns 12.43🔤 Dealing with strings
Converting multiline text to an array of lines
For instance, if you receive a {{text}} field (type: string) from a Telegram bot in multiple lines and want to process each line separately, here's how you can do it:
'{{text}}'.replace(/\n/g, ',')
// this is string with lines, separated by commas (you may use any other character)
// in this way arrays in the platform are stored
// e.g.
// {{text}} =
// Good fortune? The fact is
// The more that you practise
// The harder you sweat
// The luckier you get
//
// result will be:
// Good fortune? The fact is,The more that you practise,The harder you sweat,The luckier you get
'{{text}}'.replace(/\n/g, ',').split(',') // this returns js-array
'{{text}}'.replace(/\n/g, ',').split(',')[0] // this returns the first line
'{{text}}'.replace(/\n/g, ',').split(',')[1] // this returns the second lineGetting md5 hash
$D.md5('{{string}}')
//$D.md5('12345') returns 827ccb0eea8a706c4c34a16891f84e7bGenerating a random string (password)
Math.random().toString(36).slice(-12) // 12 characters string🛒 Dealing with arrays
Converting a string (Directual array or arrayLink) into a JS-Array value
'{{array}}'.split(',')
// {{array}} is a field with Directual type array
//
// e.g. {{array}} = 1,-2,a
// '{{array}}'.split(',') returns [1,-2,a]Saving a JS array to a Directual array
const array = ["a","b","c"] // standard JS array
// if you want to save it to Directual array, you need:
array.join(",")
// as soon as Directual stores array and arrayLink types as stringsCounting elements of an array
// basically, the expression is
'{{array}}'.split(',').length
// {{array}} is a field with Directual type array
// BUT! if {{array}} is empty, the expression above returns 1,
// so the expression should be the following:
'{{array}}' ? '{{array}}'.split(',').length : 0Getting an element from an array with number N
'{{array}}'.split(',')[N]
// {{array}} is a field with type Array.
//
// e.g. {{a}} = a,b,c
// '{{a}}'.split(',')[1] returns bGetting a random element from an array
'{{array}}'.split(',')[Math.floor(Math.random()*'{{array}}'.split(',').length)]
// here we counts N = number of elements in array,
// get the random number [0–N] and pick the random elementAdding an element into an array while preventing duplicates
$D.concat is a specific Directual JS-function
$D.concat('{{array}}', 'new element')
// or
$D.concat('{{array}}', '{{other_field}}')
// even or
$D.concat('{{array}}', '{{other_field_1}},{{other_field_2}}')
//
// e.g.
// $D.concat('', '3') returns 3
// $D.concat('1,2', '1,2,3') returns 1,2,3
// $D.concat('1,2,3', '3,4') returns 1,2,3,4
// $D.concat('1,2,3', '3') returns 1,2,3
Removing an element from an array
$D.splice is a specific Directual JS-function
$D.splice('{{array}}', 'removed element')
// or
$D.splice('{{array}}', '{{other_field}}')
// even or
$D.splice('{{array}}', '{{other_field_1}},{{other_field_2}}')
//
// e.g.
// $D.splice('', '3') returns ''
// $D.splice('1,2', '1,2,3') returns 3
// $D.splice('1,2,3', '3,4') returns 1,2
// $D.splice('1,2,3', '3') returns 1,2Applying an array iterator map()
map()JS iterators are more applicable in JS SDK step. However, .map iterator can be useful in regular steps as well. This method adits all the elements of a given array.
// e.g. we want to add ' is the best' to every element of {{array}}.
// Here is the expression for that:
'{{array}}'.split(',').map(function(element)
{return element + ' is the best'}).join(',')
// let {{array}} was "Jhon,Ivan,Anna"
// the expression will return
// Jhon is the best,Ivan is the best,Anna is the BestApplying an array iterator reduce() for calculating average
reduce() for calculating averageJS iterators are more applicable in JS SDK step. However, .reduce iterator can be useful in regular steps as well.
"{{array}}".split(",")
.reduce(function(acc, curr)
{return parseInt(acc) + parseInt(curr)})
/ "{{array}}".split(",").length
// e.g. for {{array}} == 1,2,5,0,-4,12
// that expression returns 2.666667Arrays intersection (using lodash)
lodash)Lodash documentation on _.intersection
_.intersection("{{array1}}".split(","), "{{array2}}".split(","));📅 Dealing with dates
Getting current time
The method (new Date()).toISOString() returns a JS-date-object with current time. This method is more useful than now, because we can compose complex JS-expressions in a one step using (new Date()).toISOString()
(new Date()).toISOString()
// returns current Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
// (new Date()).toISOString() === now === moment().toISOString()Converting date format
Learn more about date formatting
$D.date.format returns string data, so you can't save the result into a field type of date.
$D.date.format('{{date_1}}','MMMM dd, YYYY')
//
// e.g. $D.date.format('2020-05-20T18:14:11.000Z','MMMM dd, YYYY')
// returns May 20, 2020
//
$D.date.format($D.date.new(),'dd/MM/YYYY')
// returns today in a certain format e.g. 07.01.2021Converting into timestamp
Unix timestamp format is a way to track time as a running total of seconds. This count starts at the Unix Epoch on January 1st, 1970 at UTC.
((new Date('{{date}}')).getTime()/1000).toString()
//
// e.g {{date}} == 2020-11-12T00:00:00
// ((new Date('{{date}}')).getTime()/1000).toString() returns 1605139200 secondsParsing date
$D.date.parse('{{formatted_date}}',dateFormat)
//
// e.g. $D.date.parse('10-03-2020','dd-MM-YYY') returns 2020-03-10T00:00:00.000ZYou can compose an expression using both $D.date parse and $D.date.format to convert a format date from one to another:
$D.date.format($D.date.parse('10-03-2020','dd-MM-YYY'),'MMMM dd, YYYY')
// here we've converted 10-03-2020 into March 10, 2020Incrementing date
If you want to add minutes/hours/days/weeks to the date, here is the way
//adding {{minutes}} minutes
(new Date((new Date('{{date}}')).getTime() + ('{{minutes}}' * 60 * 1000))).toISOString()
//adding {{hours}} hours
(new Date((new Date('{{date}}')).getTime() + ('{{hours}}' * 60 * 60 * 1000))).toISOString()
//adding {{days}} days
(new Date((new Date('{{date}}')).getTime() + ('{{days}}' * 60 * 60 * 24 * 1000))).toISOString()
//adding {{weeks}} weeks
(new Date((new Date('{{date}}')).getTime() + ('{{weeks}}' * 7 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 1000))).toISOString()Creating a unique object for each day
You may need to aggregate statistics for the day into a single object (e.g., counting the quantity of orders or users). A straightforward approach is to create an object with an ID in the format of the date of the day. Here's an example expression for generating such a day-unique ID:
$D.date.format($D.date.new(),'dd-MM-YYYY')
// for todays object
$D.date.format('{{today_date}}','dd-MM-YYYY')
// where {{today_date}} is a type of date field
Calculating the number of days between two dates
To solve this, use the getTime() JS-function, which operates on the Date JS-object and returns Milliseconds since Epoch time. Here are the steps:
Getting a Date JS-object applying
new Date('{{date}}')to the field{{date}}type of dateGetting the value in milliseconds since Epoch time applying
.getTime()Calculate the difference between two dates in milliseconds
Convert milliseconds into days, dividing the result to
(1000*60*60*24)—1000 milliseconds in a one, second; 60 seconds in a minute; 60 minutes in an hour; and 24 hours in a day
Math.floor((($D.date.new().getTime() -
(new Date('{{date}}')).getTime()))/(1000*60*60*24))
// Calculating the number of days between the current moment and {{date}}
Math.floor((((new Date('{{date_1}}')).getTime() -
(new Date('{{date_2}}')).getTime()))/(1000*60*60*24))
// Calculating the number of days between {{date_1}} and {{date_2}}N.B Here is a nice article referring to understanding Date and Time in JavaScript
Applying MomentJS
You can also use MomentJS library. Check out MomentJS documentation.
Example of using MomentJS:
moment("{{date}}").add(10, 'days').format('DD-MM-YYYY')
// e.g {{date}} == 2020-11-12T00:00:00
// expression will return 22-11-2020🥷 Regular expressions
Directual JS-engine supports Regex-functions. Here are some widespread examples.
Replace
"{{text}}".replace(/one/gm, "two")
// repplaces all the words "one" in the text to "two"Extract
/\+\d{11}/gm.exec("{{text}}") // returns an array of phone numbers found in text
/\+\d{11}/gm.exec("{{text}}")[0] // the first element of an array
/\+\d{11}/gm.exec("{{text}}").join(",") // converts JS-array into Directual-arrayLast updated
Was this helpful?