How to retrieve numbers from a Text Field

Summary:
You’ll first need to create a text (or number) field to hold those numbers. Secondly, you’ll need to create a record-triggered flow on Cases (or any object that holds the field you want to extract the numbers from) to extract those numbers and update the field you created in the first step
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Resolution:
Create a new text (or number) field on Cases where the numbers off the subject will be kept:

Step 1: Go to any Case record and click the gear icon on the top right of the screen and click Edit Object.

Step 2: Click on Fields & Relationships in the left-hand-side panel, then on the New button:

Step 3: Select Text (or Number) then click on Next.

Step 4: Give it a name (for the purpose of this article, we’ll call our field Subject Numbers Only), set its length as necessary (up to 255 characters if a text field, 18 digits including the decimals for a number field) and click Next.

Step 5: Make it available to the necessary profiles/permission sets and click Next again.

Step 6: Decide which Page Layouts to have the field on and Save.
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Create a Record-Triggered-Flow on Cases

Step 1: Click on the Home tab if you’ve just finished with the field, or the Gear icon (top right of the screen), then Setup.

Step 2: Enter Flow in the Quick Find on the left-hand side, then click the New Flow button.

Step 3: Select Record-Triggered Flow, then Create.

Step 4: Set the Object to Case and select A record is created or updated in the Trigger the Flow When section.

Step 5: In the Set Entry Conditions section, change the Condition Requirements to Formula Evaluates to True and enter the following formula in the box:

OR(
AND(ISNEW(),NOT(ISBLANK({!$Record.Subject}))),
ISCHANGED({!$Record.Subject}))

Step 6: Set When to Run the Flow for Updated Records to Every time a record is updated and meets the condition requirements and make sure you select the Fast Field Update box and click Done.

Step 7: Now, expand the left-hand-side menu (symbol on the left of Select Elements) and click on New Resource.

Step 8: Select Formula.

Step 9: Give it a name (For now, let's call it LenFormula), set the Data Type to Number and its Decimals option to 0.

Step 10: For the formula itself, enter:

LEN({!$Record.Subject})

Step 11: Click Done.

Step 12: Click on New Resource again on the left-hand-side and select Variable.

Step 13: Give it a name (for example Counter) and make sure the Data Type is set to Number.

Step 14: Set the Decimals to 0 and the Default to 1 and select the Available for input checkbox and click Done.

Step 15: Back to the canvas, add a Decision and set the outcome like so:

a. Counter less than or equals to LenFormula:

Step 16: From this outcome, add an Assignment element.

Step 17: Give it a name.

Step 18: Click in the Variable field and select +New Resource.

Step 19: Select Variable and create a variable of type Text. Let's call it TextVar. No need for a Default value and make sure both Available for input and Available for output are checked and click Done.

Step 20: You should now be back in the Assignment.

Step 21: Set the Operator to Add.

Step 22: Click in the Value field and select +New Resource.

Step 23: This time, select Formula.

Step 24: Give it a name (i.e. NumberTextFormula) and make sure it returns Text.

Step 25: Set the formula to the below and click Done.

IF(OR(
/*Check for a digit*/
ISNUMBER(MID({!$Record.Subject},{!Counter},1)), 
/*Check for a decimal point - needs to be in between numbers*/
AND(
MID({!$Record.Subject},{!Counter},1)=".",
ISNUMBER(MID({!$Record.Subject},{!Counter}-1,1)),
ISNUMBER(MID({!$Record.Subject},{!Counter}+1,1)))),
MID({!$Record.Subject},{!Counter},1),NULL)

Step 26: You should now be back in the Assignment.

Step 27: Add another line to this Assignment by clicking the +Add Assignment button.

Step 28: Set the new line like below

a. Counter - Add - 1

Step 29: The Assignment element should look like this

Step 30: Link this Assignment back to your Decision.

Step 31: Hover over the dot below the Assignment, it should change to a + sign, and click it.

Step 32: Select Connect to element.

Step 33: Click on the + sign on the Decision you created previously and you should see the connection on the canvas.

Step 34: Now, add an Update Records element to your flow in the Default path of the decision to update the triggering Case and update the Text field you created to hold the numbers.

Step 35: Give it a name (for example UpdateCase).

Step 36: The How to Find Records to Update and Set Their Values section should be set automatically to Use the case record that triggered the flow if you created a flow for Fast Field Updates.

Step 37: Leave the Condition Requirements to Update Record dropdown to None–Always Update Record.

Step 38: In the Set Field Values for the Case Record section, enter the below and click Done.

Subject_Numbers_Only__c <-- {!TextVar}

Note:
If you chose to create a Number field in point 3, the Value in the Update Records element needs to be a formula (let’s call it FinalNumberFormula) like so

VALUE({!TextVar})

The Set Field Values for the Case Record section of the Update Records element should now read

Subject_Numbers_Only__c <-- {!FinalNumberFormula}

Step 39: Your flow should now look like this:

Step 40: Save and Activate the flow.

You’re now done!

Note:
Please bear in mind that this will only work for newly created/updated Case Subjects. For existing ones, you'll need to manually update the Subject_Numbers_Only__c (maybe with the data loader), or create a scheduled flow that would run once on the Case object with the same elements as above.

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Written by: Eric Praud | Salesforce MVP
Eric is a senior consultant at Epam PolSource and has been working in the Salesforce ecosystem for the past 12 years. He started his Salesforce career as a Salesforce support agent. Like many others, he stumbled across the platform accidentally and hasn’t looked back since. Eric is very active in the Answers community and has been a Salesforce MVP since March 2021

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How to retrieve numbers from a Text Field

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