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:
Title | Slug |
Senior Software Engineer | senior-software-engineer |
John's Blog Post | johns-blog-post |
How to Excel @ Work | how-to-excel--work |
Using the Formula in Sheetany
Sheetany is a powerful tool for managing and automating data, supporting Excel-like formulas.
- Input Data: Include fields such as Title, Name, or Job Title in your dataset.
- 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:
- Ensure Slug Source is Non-Empty: Make sure the column used to generate the slug (e.g., Title) is not empty.
- 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! 🚀
