--- title: "How to automatically extract data from your apps to use in your Zaps" description: "Using Zapier's built-in Formatter tool, you can easily extract URLs, phone numbers, and more from one app and add them to the other apps you use." image: "https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/zapier-formatter-guide-p-img/03c11a2d66243e8d4dc9db80b183eb61/Hero.jpg" --- # How to automatically extract data from your apps to use in your Zaps Using Zapier's built-in Formatter tool, you can easily extract URLs, phone numbers, and more from one app and add them to the other apps you use. We all have a lot of information to wade through every day, and sometimes you only need some of it for your next task. If you need to find important email addresses, phone numbers, or URLs from forms, your inbox, or other apps, it can slow you down to find them and paste them where you need them manually. Zapier's Formatter tool can help. Zapier is an app automation tool that connects with thousands of apps. Whenever something happens in one app, Zapier can start a chain reaction, copying your text into other apps to add contacts, start projects, send emails, and more. With a formatter step, you can easily extract text to get exactly what you want from your apps. Here's how. ### Table of contents - [How can you extract data with a formatter step?](#overview) - [Before you begin](#before) - [How to extract text with a formatter step](#how) ## How can you extract data with a formatter step? Formatter is one of Zapier's built-in tools for Zaps. When the information from an app isn't in the format you need, a formatter step can transform it into something you can use in later Zap steps. We're just going to focus on one [Formatter](https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-formatter-guide/) function for now—_Text_ (and specifically the _Extract_ feature of Text)—though there's a lot more you can do with it, like change the format of dates and times, split blocks of text into different pieces, or remove characters. By selecting the Text action in a formatter step, you can do lots of different things with text you receive from your trigger app—like find and replace text, capitalize or lowercase letters, convert text to HTML or Markdown, and more. Right now, we're going to show you how to extract important info—like an email address, phone number, or link—received in one app so you can add it to another app. Once you've set it up, your formatter step will do this for you automatically every time your Zap runs. ## Before you begin We'll assume that you're a little familiar with how Zapier works. And if you aren't, don't worry: [It's free to sign up](https://zapier.com/sign-up/) for a Zapier account. We also have a guide to help you [get up to speed on Zap basics](https://zapier.com/learn/zapier-quick-start-guide/). You'll need to [be in the Zap editor](https://zapier.com/app/editor) for this tutorial, where you can create Zaps from scratch.  For our example, we'll extract our text—URLs in this case—from Gmail and automatically add the links to Pocket, the web bookmarking app. We'll use Zapier's Formatter tool as the go-between to make this happen.  ## How to extract text with a formatter step Are you logged into your Zapier account? Good, now click the **Create a Zap** button to [set up a Zap](https://zapier.com/learn/zapier-quick-start-guide/quick-start-create-zap/). We'll start with your trigger, which is the event that starts your Zap.   Search for and select your trigger app and trigger event. Then click **Continue**.  We'll select _Gmail_ and _New Email_ for our trigger app and event because we want to add URLs found in our emails to our action step.  Next, you'll be asked to connect your app to Zapier. Once it's connected, click** Continue**.  Now it's time to set up your trigger. Depending on which trigger app and event you're using, these steps will vary.  For our example, we want our trigger step to trigger on all emails that come through our inbox, so we'll select **Inbox and All Labels **in the _Label/Mailbox_ field. When you're done setting up your trigger step, click **Continue**, then **Test trigger** to ensure your trigger step is working properly. Review your test results to check that everything is set up how you want it. We got a confirmation showing a recent email found in our inbox, which is what we'd expect.    Click **Continue** when you're satisfied with your test results or go back and tweak your trigger step and re-test if you need to make any changes. ### Add a formatter step It's time to add a [formatter step](https://zapier.com/apps/formatter/integrations) to your Zap. Click the **+** symbol below your trigger to add a new step.  Select** Format** for your _App Event_.   Click inside the_ Action Event_ field to see the four available formatting options. Select **Text** and click** Continue**.  Now we're going to see how this Zap comes together. Click inside the _Transform_ search box and select **Extract URL**. If you want to extract other text, like a phone number or number, select one of those options. Then click **Continue**.   Now select where you want to extract your data from.  We're going to extract URLs from the body text of our email. We'll click inside the _Input field_ and select **Body Plain**. We can see the body text our test pulled from our previous Gmail step. Click **Continue**.  Next, test your formatter step by clicking **Test & continue**.  A successful test will show the data extracted from your trigger step. We should see a link pulled from one of our recent emails. ### Add an action step We're almost there! This final step will send our data (our URL in our example) to a second app. We're going to use Pocket. Click the** +** to add your second action step. Search for and select your action app and action event. We're going to select **Pocket** for our action app and **Save for Later** for our action event. Then click **Continue**. Next you'll be asked to verify your app account. Then click** Continue**.  Now we can set up our action step to pull the URLs from Gmail into Pocket.  To do this, we'll want to map the URL we found in our previous formatter step to our action app. Click in the _URL_ search box and select **Text in Formatter by Zapier**.   Selecting this will display several options. Select **Output** with the link (or other data) you recognize from your trigger step test. Click **Continue**.  Now test your final action step by clicking **Test and review**. You should see your link or data point captured in your test results. Then log in to your Pocket account to see if your link was captured. If so, you're ready to use your Zap. ### Automatically capture data from your apps Cut out the manual copy and paste. Zapier Formatter's extract tools are a powerful way to find just what you need from your text and then use it in other apps. Whether you need to copy contact info, financial data, website links, and more, Formatter can help—automatically. ## **Do more with Formatter by Zapier** Want to automate more of your work with text? Check out the other tutorials in this series for more ways to use Formatter. - [The Zapier Formatter guide: How to automatically format text the way you want](https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-formatter-guide/) - [How to separate first and last names from a single form field](https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-separate-names-into-first-and-last/) - [How to change date and time formats in your text automatically](https://zapier.com/blog/format-datetimes/) - [Automatically find and match related data across apps](https://zapier.com/blog/find-match-data-across-apps/) - [The Zapier guide to line items](https://zapier.com/blog/formatter-line-item-automation/)