Academy

Unit 1 · Make Basics: Functions

Introducing functions

6 min read Updated May 21, 2026

Unit introduction

Welcome to course three as part of Make Basics.

In this course you’re going to explore how you can transform your data within Make using different functions.

For example:

  • Transform text to upper / lower case
  • Transform an item’s date based on your location / preference
  • Transform numerical data, such as calculating the average of multiple values

In this unit we’ll focus on introducing functions for different data types, and why functions are so useful.

What is data transformation?

Put simply, data transformation is changing data from one form to another, so it’s easier to read and understand.

In Make, one of the ways to do this is using functions!

Let’s look at an example. We have a form with a name field.

Some users may put their name in all lower case (for example, make academy), but we want to change the first letter of each word to upper case.

Here we could use the startcase() function. So the result would be “Make Academy”.

There are many more advanced functions that can be utilized, but for now we’re going to focus on the basics.

Where do I find functions?

To find functions, open your Make Foundation / Make Basics use case.

Open any destination module, such as a Google Sheets → Add a Row module, and click a field that can be mapped. For example, in a Google Sheets module, you might click into a field like ‘Date (A)’ or ‘Temperature (B)’ under the ‘Values’ section.

You may remember seeing these functions in the course Introduction to Mapping in Make Foundation.

Within Make’s modules, certain fields can leverage functions. We’ve categorized these functions into specific groups, with each tab representing a different function type or category.

One such tab is ‘General functions’, which includes:

  • VARIABLES: executionId
  • FUNCTIONS: (), get, if, ifempty, switch, omit, pick
  • OPERATORS: =, !=, and, or
  • KEYWORDS: true, false, ignore, null, erase

Element - Selectable image 3 – modal

We’ll be covering these in more detail over the following units.

Items

The first tab here is not a function, but contains all the mappable items from the previous modules in your scenario – you have seen this already if you have created any of the scenarios on the Make Academy.

When scenarios become more complex there can be a lot of items displayed here. Consider using the search bar to find the item you need.

General functions

The general functions include get(), if(), ifempty(), switch(), omit(), pick(). General functions are used to define conditions that return a set of values.

The OPERATORS located below functions need to be used as part of the functions. For example, if in the Weather app you want to return the value of Umbrella or No Umbrella based on the status that matches Rain. You would use the operator =. The function would appear as follows: if(Status=Rain;Umbrella;No umbrella)

Note: that if you are on an Enterprise plan, any custom functions you create will appear within General functions.

Math functions

These are average(), ceil(), floor(), max(), min(), round(), sum(), parseNumber(), formatNumber(). For example, if you want to return the average of a data set you can use the average() function. To return the average temperature, you would use average(10;20;30) to return a value of 20.

Text and binary functions

These are used for manipulating / modifying / transforming strings (text). For example, you can change the first character in a text string to uppercase by using the function capitalize(make academy) would return “Make academy”. Or using upper(make academy) would return “MAKE ACADEMY”.

Date and time functions

Date and time functions are really powerful, most date/time data within Make is provided as follows: 2023-03-06T14:08:42.820Z But this may not be useful for your needs. Thankfully with the date/time functions you can change this. For example, to set the timezone you can use the function: formatDate(now; DD.MM.YYYY; Europe/London) to return the date shown above in the following format: 03.06.2023 14:08.

Functions for working with arrays

We introduced arrays in the previous course; this is really valuable knowledge to have, and we will explore these functions in a later course. For now though we will just cover the very basic functions in this course and will explore functions and arrays in Make Intermediate. As a quick example; the map() function can be used to extract a specific data type from an array - in the previous course we mentioned extracting books based on genre. If you are interested in exploring working with arrays now, check out this post in the community.

Custom and system variables

Custom and system variables are an advanced topic within Make, so we won’t be covering these for a while. However if you’re interested in learning about these sooner, check out this post in the Make Community, or this article within the help centre.

Note: that custom variables are available starting from the Pro plan.

Coming up…

Over the next four units you are going to build four separate use cases, each of them showing you how to utilize a variety of different functions.

Before you begin, let’s do some preparation so you can hit the ground running. You will need to create a Google Sheet to store all of your data for these exercises. Work through each stage before you continue.

Google Sheet Setup

Create a new Google Sheet and name it Basic Functions.

You will need to create four different sheets within this spreadsheet. Name these:

  • Text Functions
  • Date Functions
  • Math Functions
  • Format Number

Text Functions Sheet

In the sheet named Text functions, add the following headers: UPPER, Capitalize, Start Case, lower.

Date Functions Sheet

In the Date Functions sheet, add the following headers: GMT, Date only, Date and time (Paris), Date and time (New York).

Math Functions Sheet

In the Math functions sheet, add the following headers: Date, Avg Temperature.

Format Number Sheet

In the Format Number sheet, add the following headers: Cost, 1 decimal point, 2 decimal points.

That’s everything for now. Let’s wrap up this unit and move on to the next one. It’s time to start getting hands on with Make again!

Unit summary

That’s all you need to know for now, you have had a brief introduction to functions, and set up your sheet for the next four units, where you will be exploring different use cases.

As a quick reminder, you can:

  • use functions to modify data within Make
  • access functions by mapping an item