slugify — GTM Variable Template for String

VARIABLES › STRING

slugify EXTENDED String

Direct (.tpl) Apply (.tpl) Add to GTM

Converts a string into a URL-friendly slug. Slugification steps: 1. Lowercase and trim 2. Replace accented characters with ASCII equivalents 3. Replace special characters with spaces 4. Collapse multiple spaces or hyphens into a single hyphen 5. Remove leading and trailing hyphens

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When to Use This

String Manipulation

Transform, clean, and normalize text data for consistent downstream processing.

Formatting

Normalize casing, spacing, encoding, and presentation of data values.

URL Processing

Parse, build, decode, and manipulate URLs and query parameters.

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Examples

Basic slugification▶ Try

INPUT

Text To Slugify: Hello World! This is a Test

OUTPUT

hello-world-this-is-a-test

Accented characters▶ Try

INPUT

Text To Slugify: Café résumé naïve

OUTPUT

cafe-resume-naive

Non-string returns undefined▶ Try

INPUT

Text To Slugify: 12345

OUTPUT

undefined

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Live Sandbox

This is what you'll see when you open this variable in Google Tag Manager. Hover the icons for details.

slugify

Read-Only Try Live

Text To Slugify

💾 The string to convert into a URL-friendly slug.

Supported formats:
  ✓ String

Input Setup

Input Function (optional)

⚙️ Optional pre-processing function applied to the input before slugification.

Result Handling

Output Function (optional)

⚙️ Optional function to apply to the result before returning it (e.g., prepend a path prefix). Useful for chaining transformations on the output.

Text To Slugify string

💡 Type any text to see the result update live

🎯 Using special value — click input to type instead

Test with:

Falsy undefined null "" empty 0 false NaN

Truthy true 42 "hello" {} empty [] empty {a:1} [1,2,3]

🔗 Result Handling — Chain Variables

Chain apply-mode variables to the output. Each variable receives the result of the previous one.

slugify()

+ Chain another variable

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Related Variables

Same category: String

→ charAt → collapseWhitespace → concat → countWordsInString → endsWith → extract → extractFirstSegment → extractNumber → fromBase64 → indexOf → left → matchAll → matchRegex → normalizeEmail → normalizePhone → padEnd → padStart → parseJSON → replaceAll → replaceAllWithRegex → replaceFirst → right → safeSplit → search → slice → split → startsWith → stripAccents → stripHtml → substringAfter → substringBefore → test → toBase64 → toCamelCase → toJsonString → toKebabCase → toLocaleLowerCase → toLocaleUpperCase → toLowerCase → toNumber → toSnakeCase → toStartCase → toString → toStringRepresentation → toUpperCase → toUpperFirst → trim → trimEnd → trimStart → truncate

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Under the Hood

📜 View Implementation Code

/**
* Converts a string into a URL-friendly slug.
*
* Steps:
*   1. Lowercase and trim
*   2. Replace accented characters with ASCII equivalents
*   3. Replace non-alphanumeric characters with spaces
*   4. Collapse multiple spaces/hyphens into a single hyphen
*   5. Strip leading and trailing hyphens
*
* Uses the established replaceAllWithRegex pattern for GTM sandbox compatibility
* (no regex literals, no .normalize(), no .replaceAll()).
*
* @param {string} data.src - The string to slugify.
* @param {Function|string} [data.out] - Optional output handler.
*
* Direct-mode specific parameters:
* @param {Function} [data.pre] - Optional pre-processor function.
*
* @returns {string|undefined} The slugified string, or undefined if input is not a string.
*
* @framework ggLowCodeGTMKit
*/
const slugify = function(input) {
   if (typeof input !== 'string') { return undefined; }

   // --- Helper: replaceAllWithRegex (GTM sandbox pattern from toKebabCase/toSnakeCase) ---
   const replaceAllWithRegex = function(str, pattern, replacement) {
       if (typeof str !== 'string' || typeof pattern !== 'string') { return str; }
       var result = str;
       var lastIndex = 0;
       while (lastIndex < result.length) {
           var remaining = result.substring(lastIndex);
           var matchObj = remaining.match(pattern);
           if (matchObj === null) { break; }
           var actualMatchIndex = lastIndex + (matchObj.index || 0);
           result = result.substring(0, actualMatchIndex) +
                    replacement +
                    result.substring(actualMatchIndex + matchObj[0].length);
           lastIndex = actualMatchIndex + replacement.length;
       }
       return result;
   };

   var slug = input.toLowerCase().trim();

   var accentMap = {
       'à': 'a', 'á': 'a', 'â': 'a', 'ã': 'a', 'ä': 'a', 'å': 'a', 'æ': 'ae',
       'ç': 'c', 'è': 'e', 'é': 'e', 'ê': 'e', 'ë': 'e',
       'ì': 'i', 'í': 'i', 'î': 'i', 'ï': 'i',
       'ð': 'd', 'ñ': 'n',
       'ò': 'o', 'ó': 'o', 'ô': 'o', 'õ': 'o', 'ö': 'o', 'ø': 'o',
       'ù': 'u', 'ú': 'u', 'û': 'u', 'ü': 'u',
       'ý': 'y', 'ÿ': 'y', 'þ': 'th',
       'ß': 'ss', 'œ': 'oe',
       'ł': 'l', 'đ': 'd', 'ž': 'z', 'š': 's', 'č': 'c', 'ř': 'r',
       'ě': 'e', 'ů': 'u', 'ń': 'n', 'ś': 's', 'ź': 'z', 'ą': 'a', 'ę': 'e',
       'ć': 'c', 'ő': 'o', 'ű': 'u'
   };
   var deaccented = '';
   for (var i = 0; i < slug.length; i++) {
       var ch = slug.charAt(i);
       deaccented += accentMap[ch] || ch;
   }
   slug = deaccented;

   slug = replaceAllWithRegex(slug, "[^a-z0-9\\s-]", ' ');

   slug = slug.trim();

   slug = replaceAllWithRegex(slug, "[\\s-]+", '-');

   while (slug.length > 0 && slug.charAt(0) === '-') {
       slug = slug.substring(1);
   }
   while (slug.length > 0 && slug.charAt(slug.length - 1) === '-') {
       slug = slug.substring(0, slug.length - 1);
   }

   return slug;
};

const safeFunction = fn => typeof fn === 'function' ? fn : x => x;
const out = safeFunction(data.ou

🧪 View Test Scenarios (11 tests)

✅ '[example] Basic slugification'
✅ '[example] Accented characters'
✅ German umlauts and eszett
✅ Multiple spaces and special characters
✅ Already a valid slug - unchanged
✅ Numbers preserved
✅ Mixed underscores and hyphens
✅ French text with multiple accents
✅ '[example] Non-string returns undefined'
✅ Empty string returns empty string
✅ Ampersands and special chars