Building fundamentals
Course overview
Pulling data
Transforming data
Exporting data & dashboards
Exporting data &
dashboards
Bonus lessons
Pulling data
Transforming data
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Course overview
Pulling data
Transforming data
Exporting data & dashboards
Bonus lessons
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Transforming data - bonus lesson

Adding a text column

Parabola’s Add text column step allows you to insert new columns into your datasets. 

How to use the step

  1. Add an Add text column step to the canvas. 
  2. Name the new column you want to create.
  3. Specify the value you want in the new text column. 

Pro tip

  • To reference values from other columns, use curly brackets ({}) in the Column value section. 
    • Ex) If you have a column called SKU with a value 12345 and you want your new column called Updated SKU to display #12345, you would input “#{SKU}” in the Column value section. 

Visit our support docs to learn more about the step. 

Next lesson

Using the Add Text Column Step in Parabola

The Add Text Column step allows you to insert new columns into your dataset and define static or dynamic values for those columns.

How It Works

With this step, you can:
✅ Add new columns with a fixed value (e.g., "San Francisco" as a warehouse location).
✅ Dynamically reference other columns using merge tags (e.g., combining Warehouse name + SKU).

Example 1: Adding a Static Column

Let's say we want to create a Warehouse column and set its value to "San Francisco" for all rows.

  1. Enter the column name as "Warehouse".
  2. Type "San Francisco" in the value field.
  3. Click Show Updated Results → Now the dataset includes a new column with "San Francisco" in every row.

Example 2: Combining Text Dynamically

If we want to combine the warehouse name with SKU, we can use merge tags:

  1. Set the column name to "Warehouse + SKU".
  2. Enter:objectivecCopyEditSan Francisco {SKU}
    • The curly brackets {} reference the SKU column dynamically.
  3. Click Show Updated Results → Now, each row contains "San Francisco 1234" (where 1234 is the SKU value from that row).

🔹 Merge Tags are used across many Parabola steps, making them a core concept to understand early.

When to Use Other Steps Instead

While Add Text Column is useful for inserting text-based values, other steps might be better in certain cases:

  • If/Else Logic? → Use the If/Else Column step (covered next).
  • Math Calculations? → Use the Add Math Column step.

Next Up: If/Else Column Step

In the next video, we’ll explore one of Parabola’s most powerful steps, the If/Else Column, for adding logic-based columns.

Try adding a text column in the building challenge below, and let us know if you have any questions! 🚀