Home Tables Semantic Data Types

Semantic Data Types

Last updated on Apr 06, 2026

Semantic Data Types

Every column in your TexAu table has a data type. Your data type tells TexAu what kind of data lives in that column, and that makes TexAu smarter at formatting, validating, and enriching your data.

Why Data Types Matter

Automatic Formatting: TexAu formats your data based on type. Phone numbers get formatted as (555) 123-4567. URLs get clickable links. Dates display consistently.

Validation: TexAu checks that data matches its type. If a column is supposed to have email addresses, TexAu can spot when a phone number accidentally ended up there.

Smart Enrichment Matching: When you enrich data, TexAu knows what enrichment sources are available for each type. A "company domain" column can match against business databases. A "full name" column can match against people databases.

Intelligent Suggestions: When you import data, TexAu suggests the best data type for each column based on its content. You can accept, change, or leave it as generic "text."

Semantic Data Types

TexAu supports 30+ semantic data types. Here is the complete list.

People Data Types

firstName: A person's first name

  • Examples: "Jane", "Michael", "Chen"
  • Use when you have a column with just first names

lastName: A person's last name

  • Examples: "Smith", "Garcia", "Johnson"
  • Use when you have a column with just last names

fullName: A person's complete name

  • Examples: "Jane Smith", "Michael Johnson", "Chen Liu"
  • Use when you have full names that cannot be split into first/last

namePrefix: Titles or honorifics before a name

  • Examples: "Dr.", "Mr.", "Mrs.", "Ms.", "Prof."
  • Use when you have name prefixes in a separate column

nameSuffix: Suffixes after a name

  • Examples: "Jr.", "Sr.", "III", "PhD", "Esq."
  • Use when you have name suffixes in a separate column

email: Email address

phone: Telephone number

  • Examples: "(555) 123-4567", "+1-555-123-4567", "555.123.4567"
  • Use when you have phone numbers. TexAu auto-formats them consistently.

jobTitle: Job title or position

  • Examples: "VP of Sales", "Senior Software Engineer", "Marketing Manager"
  • Use when you have job titles in a column

department: Department or team

  • Examples: "Engineering", "Sales", "Marketing", "Operations"
  • Use when you have department names

seniorityLevel: Seniority rank

  • Examples: "Entry-Level", "Manager", "Director", "VP", "C-Suite", "Executive"
  • Use when you have job seniority levels

employmentStatus: Employment classification

  • Examples: "Employed", "Self-Employed", "Freelancer", "Founder"
  • Use when you track employment status

yearsExperience: Years of professional experience

  • Examples: "5", "10", "15"
  • Use when you have experience data. TexAu formats as numbers.

Company and Business Data Types

companyName: The legal name of a company

  • Examples: "Acme Corporation", "Apple Inc.", "Tesla Motors"
  • Use when you have company names. TexAu uses these for enrichment matching.

companyDomain: Company website domain

  • Examples: "acme.com", "apple.com", "tesla.com"
  • Use when you have company domains. TexAu can look up detailed company info.

companyTagline: Company slogan or tagline

  • Examples: "Think Different", "Move Fast and Break Things"
  • Use when you have marketing slogans or taglines

companyDescription: Description of what the company does

  • Examples: "We build cloud infrastructure for data teams", "Leading online retailer"
  • Use when you have company descriptions or summaries

companyLinkedinUrl: Company's LinkedIn page

  • Examples: "linkedin.com/company/acme-corp"
  • Use when you have company LinkedIn URLs

crunchbaseUrl: Company's Crunchbase profile

  • Examples: "crunchbase.com/organization/acme-corporation"
  • Use when you have Crunchbase profile links

employeeCount: Exact number of employees

  • Examples: "250", "1500", "50000"
  • Use when you have exact employee counts. TexAu formats as numbers.

employeeRange: Employee count range

  • Examples: "1-10", "11-50", "51-200", "201-500", "1001-5000"
  • Use when you have employee ranges instead of exact numbers

stockTicker: Stock ticker symbol

  • Examples: "AAPL", "TSLA", "MSFT"
  • Use when you have stock symbols for public companies

Location Data Types

country: Country name

  • Examples: "United States", "Canada", "Japan", "Germany"
  • Use when you have country names. TexAu standardizes formatting.

city: City or municipality name

  • Examples: "San Francisco", "London", "Tokyo", "Berlin"
  • Use when you have city names

postalCode: ZIP code or postal code

  • Examples: "94105", "SW1A 1AA", "100-0005"
  • Use when you have postal codes. TexAu formats correctly by country.

Digital and Online Data Types

linkedinProfileUrl: Personal LinkedIn profile

  • Examples: "linkedin.com/in/jane-smith", "linkedin.com/in/jane-smith/"
  • Use when you have individual LinkedIn profiles

twitterUrl: Twitter/X profile

  • Examples: "twitter.com/jane_smith", "x.com/jane_smith"
  • Use when you have Twitter handles or profile URLs

url: Any URL or web link

  • Examples: "https://www.acme.com", "blog.company.com/article", "github.com/user"
  • Use when you have URLs that do not fit other specific types

Financial and Numeric Data Types

currency: Monetary amounts

  • Examples: "$1,500,000", "E250,000", "Y100,000"
  • Use when you have dollar amounts, revenue, or pricing. TexAu formats with currency symbols.

number: Generic numeric value

  • Examples: "42", "3.14159", "1000000"
  • Use when you have numbers that are not dates, currency, or counts

Date and Time Data Types

date: Calendar date

  • Examples: "2024-01-15", "January 15, 2024", "15/01/2024"
  • Use when you have dates. TexAu standardizes the format.

Other Data Types

id: Unique identifier

  • Examples: "cust_12345", "usr_abc123", "org_xyz789"
  • Use when you have IDs, UUIDs, or reference numbers that should not be enriched

text: Free-form text

  • Examples: "This is any text content", "Customer notes and comments"
  • Use when your column does not fit any specific type (catch-all)

Use Data Types in Your Tables

Set a Data Type When Importing

When you import a table, TexAu analyzes your data and suggests types:

  1. Go to Create Table or Import
  2. Select your CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets file
  3. TexAu shows a preview with suggested data types
  4. Review each column:
    • If TexAu guessed correctly, click Confirm or move on
    • If it got it wrong, click the column and select the correct type
  5. Proceed with import

Tip: TexAu is usually right about types (90%+ accuracy), but a quick review is worth the effort. This setup work pays off in better enrichment and formatting later.

Change a Data Type Later

Already imported? You can change types anytime:

  1. Open your table
  2. Right-click the column header or click the three-dot menu
  3. Select Edit Column or Change Type
  4. Select the new data type
  5. Click Save

TexAu re-formats your data based on the new type. If data does not fit the new type, you see a warning.

Create New Columns with Types

Adding a new column? Choose its type:

  1. Click + Add Column at the end of your table
  2. Name the column (for example, "Sales Rep Email")
  3. Choose the data type (for example, "email")
  4. Click Create

Now when you add data to this column, TexAu formats and validates it according to the type.

Data Type Examples in Action

Example 1: Phone Numbers

You have a column called "Contact Phone" with data like:

  • 5551234567
  • 555-123-4567
  • (555) 123-4567

Set Type to: phone

TexAu automatically formats all of them as (555) 123-4567 consistently. When you export or display the data, it is clean and professional.

Example 2: Company Enrichment

You have columns:

  • company_name with type: companyName
  • company_domain with type: companyDomain

When you run enrichment, TexAu knows to match these against company databases. It finds company info like employee count, location, industry, etc.

Example 3: Full Names

You have a column "Contact Name" with data like:

  • Jane Smith
  • Michael Johnson

Set Type to: fullName

TexAu can now intelligently suggest first name and last name splitting. Some enrichment sources can extract person data once TexAu understands it is a full name.

Tips for Choosing Data Types

When You Are Unsure:

  • If data is a mix of types, use text
  • If it is a number but not currency/date/count, use number
  • If it is any URL that does not fit a specific type, use url

For Enrichment:

  • Use specific types (companyName, email, jobTitle) rather than generic "text"
  • More specific types = better enrichment matching

For Formatting:

  • Phone, currency, and date types get auto-formatted
  • This is especially useful for exports, reports, and integration with other tools

For Validation:

  • Accurate types help catch data quality issues
  • You can run validation reports to spot mismatched data

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Using "text" for everything If you know your data type, pick the specific one. "text" is a catch-all, but specific types enable smarter features.

Mistake 2: Mixing types in one column One column should have one type. If a column has both phone numbers and email addresses, split into two columns.

Mistake 3: Using the wrong type for enrichment company_domain should be "companyDomain", not "text" or "url". Specific types tell TexAu how to enrich your data.

Mistake 4: Forgetting to update types after cleaning data If you clean messy data and reformat it, update the type. This unlocks better enrichment and formatting.

What's Next?

  • Want to enrich your data? Learn about Running Enrichments
  • Not sure which type your data is? Reach out to support. We can help.

The right data types unlock the full potential of TexAu. Invest a minute upfront to set them correctly, and you get better enrichment, better formatting, and cleaner data.