Pages need clean, human-friendly data. However, APIs and backend logic don't always provide it that way.
Consider a common page workflow:
Page 1 (search term)
↓
HTTP Request action (list of objects)
↓
Explode → per-item enrich → Implode
↓
Page 2 (choose from list)Between the HTTP Request action and Page 2, you must:
Filter the dataset.
Rename or restructure fields.
Deduplicate categories or attributes.
Build readable labels like “Alex Rivera (Engineering)”.
Sort results for the UI.
Remove null or missing fields.
Pages do not do this work. Actions alone cannot do this work. Formulas do!
Work with arrays
Before introducing these functions, it’s important to understand how pages interpret data:
Tables expect arrays of objects.
Option lists expect arrays (usually of strings).
Lists or repeaters also require arrays.
Text blocks can display anything, but often rely on a formula from arrays or objects.
This means most of your page-driven transformations will:
Start with an array.
Filter or reshape the array.
Return a new array.
Bind that array into a page element.
The functions we'll dig into are built exactly for this pattern.