Split full names and addresses for a CRM import

The files

Names with titles, "Last, First" in capitals, names in lower case, a family name written first, two people in one cell. Addresses with and without commas, one across two lines.

The same problems from five countries, with UK postcodes, a US ZIP code and a German postcode before the city:

What a standard import does with them

A CRM's own import maps each column to a field. Zoho CRM's help, for example, describes mapping columns to fields and setting a default value, and no way to split one column into two fields. So the split happens first, in the spreadsheet.

That usually means Text to Columns or a helper column per field, copied down, checked by eye, and pasted back as values. Each helper column is one more place for a row to slip. Source:Zoho's help on importing data, checked on 3 October 2026.

Split full name into first and last name

In Sloose each field can take a formula. Here is one for the first name and one for the last name, written for the two shapes that are commonest in this file: "Last, First", and "First Last".

helpers.proper(row.Name.includes(',')
  ? helpers.split(row.Name, ',', 1)
  : helpers.split(row.Name, ' ', 0))

helpers.proper(row.Name.includes(',')
  ? helpers.split(row.Name, ',', 0)
  : row.Name.split(' ').pop())

And what they make of every row of example 03:

Two rows of six are right. That is normal for real names, and it is why a spreadsheet split goes wrong quietly: every output looks like a name. In Sloose the formula editor runs the formula on the rows of your file as you type, so the four wrong rows are in front of you before anything is written.

Fixing the rows no rule should guess

• Titles such as "Dr." and "Ms": a better formula can drop them, or send them to a salutation field if your CRM has one.
• A family name written first, as in "Nguyen Van Minh": only a person knows. Edit the cell.
• Two people in one cell, "Ben & Kate Duarte": decide whether that is one contact or two, then edit the cell.

A cell you edit belongs to the import, not to your file, which stays as it was. The formula stays with the import, and with its template.

Let the AI write the formula

You do not have to write formulas yourself. Draft everything asks the AI about every column, and the formula editor has its own Ask AI. Where values need a different case, a split or a join to fit a field, the answer can be a formula.

Every field it proposes is checked against your CRM's real fields before you see it. A formula the AI wrote is not run on your rows until you choose to, unless Sloose can see that it reads nothing but the row, because it was written from a file that could have come from anyone. Asking the AI uses credits; writing and running formulas yourself does not.

Address in one cell to separate fields

Sloose has no address parser. Each address field gets its own formula, and the output for every row shows you where it fails. A postcode rule shows why that matters.

This formula takes the last four digits of the address, which is right for Australia:

row.Address.match(/\d{4}$/)?.[0] ?? ''

Run on example 03i, from five countries:

The Bristol address is on three lines in the file; the slashes stand for its line breaks.

Three rows come out empty, which is easy to see. The US row comes out as 8701: four digits that look exactly like a postcode, cut from the ZIP code 78701. A rule for addresses from several countries has to read the Country column first. Whatever the rule, the row-by-row output is where you find the 8701 before your CRM does.

Phone numbers with and without country codes

Example 03i has "+61 491 570 313", "(512) 555-0142" and "0113 496 0123" in one column. helpers.digitskeeps only the digits, which removes the spaces and brackets and also the + of a country code: "+61 491 570 313" becomes 61491570313. Decide for each phone column whether you want that, or the number as written.

Used here