Splitting Fields

Splitting fields is a common data cleaning operation that involves separating the contents of a single field (or column) into multiple separate fields. This operation is often necessary when data within a single field contains multiple distinct pieces of information.

Consider the following array of JavaScript objects, each representing a row in a table with a single "Address" field:

let data = [
  { Address: "123 Apple St, Cupertino, CA, 95014" },
  { Address: "1600 Amphitheater Pkwy, Mountain View, CA, 94043" },
  { Address: "1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA, 95014" },
];

To split this "Address" field into separate "Street", "City", "State", and "ZIP" fields, we can use JavaScript's .map() and .split() methods:

let newData = data.map((item) => {
  let splitAddress = item.Address.split(", ");
  return {
    Street: splitAddress[0],
    City: splitAddress[1],
    State: splitAddress[2],
    ZIP: splitAddress[3],
  };
});

Here's what our data looks like before splitting the fields:

And here's what our data looks like after splitting the fields:

Splitting fields can help make your data more manageable, readable, and ready for further analysis or processing.