Managing data in Excel or Sheetany for projects like Job Boards or Blogs often requires creating a Slug column.

Slugs are crucial for building SEO-friendly and human-readable URLs based on fields like Title, Name, or Job Title.

This guide walks you through generating slugs using a simple formula in Excel or Sheetany.

What is a Slug and Why Is It Important?

A Slug is the part of a URL that identifies a specific page in a readable format. For example:

https://example.com/blog/how-to-create-slug

In this case, how-to-create-slug is the slug.

Slugs should be short, descriptive, free of special characters, and use hyphens (-) to replace spaces.

Formula to Generate a Slug from Title, Name, or Job Title

Basic Formula:

Below is the formula to convert a cell's content into a slug in Excel:

=LOWER(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2, " ", "-"), "'", ""), ".", ""))

How It Works:

• LOWER: Converts all characters to lowercase.
• SUBSTITUTE(A2, " ", "-"): Replaces spaces with hyphens.
• SUBSTITUTE(..., "'", ""): Removes single quotes (').
• SUBSTITUTE(..., ".", ""): Removes periods (.).

Extended Formula for More Cases:

If your data includes additional special characters like ,, !, or @, you can extend the formula by nesting more SUBSTITUTE functions:

=LOWER(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2, " ", "-"), "'", ""), ".", ""), ",", ""), "!", ""))

Example:

Using the Formula in Sheetany

Sheetany is a powerful tool for managing and automating data, supporting Excel-like formulas.

1. Input Data: Include fields such as Title, Name, or Job Title in your dataset.
2. Add a Slug Column: Create a new column named Slug. Paste the formula in the first cell of the column and apply it to the rest of the rows.

Integrate Slugs into Templates: Use the Slug column to automatically generate URLs for your Job Board or Blog template.
Example:

https://example.com/job/senior-software-engineer

Tips for Generating Slugs:

1. Ensure Slug Source is Non-Empty: Make sure the column used to generate the slug (e.g., Title) is not empty.
2. Handle Special Characters: If your data contains additional special characters, add them to the formula with more SUBSTITUTE functions.

Avoid Duplicate Slugs: Add a unique identifier or number to the slug if duplicates are possible, e.g.,

senior-software-engineer-1

Conclusion

Automatically generating a Slug column in Excel or Sheetany helps you streamline data management and create SEO-friendly URLs efficiently.

A simple formula like =LOWER(SUBSTITUTE(...)) can save you time and ensure consistency across your templates.

If you have questions or need further assistance with Sheetany, feel free to leave a comment! 🚀