Ensures Data Consistency Across Entry Points: Whether data is entered manually, through Online Giving forms, Online Data Review, or other integrations, trailing spaces can lead to inconsistencies in how records are stored and retrieved.
Prevents Downstream Errors and Confusion: Trailing spaces in names, addresses, and other text fields often go unnoticed—especially in tools like Excel where they aren't visually apparent. These hidden characters disrupt data merging, cause false mismatches, and require manual trimming by users, wasting valuable time and increasing the risk of errors.
Aligns with Best Practices in Data Hygiene: Databases typically handle such cleanup automatically. Extending this behavior system-wide ensures that all user-facing and backend processes benefit from clean, standardized input.
Improves User Experience and Efficiency: Users often unknowingly enter trailing spaces. Automating their removal reduces the need for manual corrections and avoids frustrating validation issues.
Supports Reliable Integrations and Automation: Clean data is critical for integrations, exports, and automated workflows. Removing trailing spaces ensures smoother operations and fewer exceptions.
Okay, this really has got to get implemented. We are using the Online Data Review and when a donor entered in their name they entered an extra space at the end and Online Data Review couldn't find the relationship match in the system. So I had to go into Database view and manually promote the relationship up to constituent. And when I did, Online Data Review still told me the names don't match...because of the extra space at the end. Please implement this - database view and Online Express don't have these issues.
Great idea!