> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.pentaho.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.pentaho.com/pdia-data-integration/9.3-data-integration/pdi-transformation-steps-reference-overview/string-operations/the-fields-to-process-string-operations-step.md).
# The fields to process
Use **The fields to process** table to specify which operations you want to apply to your input strings.
The table contains the following columns:
| Column | Description |
| ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **In stream field** | Name of the field containing the string to be processed. Use **Get fields** to populate the table with fields from the incoming PDI data stream. |
| **Out stream field** | (Optional) A new outgoing PDI field containing the results of the specified string operations. If you do not specify a value for this field, the **In stream field** is replaced by the resulting string. |
| **Trim type** | Specifies whether to remove extra spaces before or after a field. You can trim a field on its left side, right side, or both. The default value is none. |
| **Lower/Upper** | Specifies whether to make all the characters in a field upper or lowercase. The default value is none. |
| **Padding** | Specifies whether to add extra characters before or after a field. You can pad a field on its left side or its right side. The default value is none. |
| **Pad char** | The extra character added to a field for padding. |
| **Pad Length** | The amount of extra characters used for padding. |
| **InitCap** | Specifies whether to capitalize the initial character in a field. The default value is N. |
| **Escape** | Specifies whether to use, ignore (escape), or process (unescape) if the following formats are present in a field:
The default value is None.
|
| **Digits** | Specifies whether to return only or remove numeric characters (digits). The default value is none. |
| **Remove Special character** | Specifies whether to remove any of the following special characters from a field:
- Carriage return (CR)
- Line feed (LF)
- Carriage return and line feed
- Horizontal tab
- Space
The default value is none.
|
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