=EXTRUCT()
Trigger business research agents
Introduction
=EXTRUCT() is the main research function that launches the Extruct AI research agent. Provide agent instructions and the desired output format, and go ahead!
Prompts can be as simple as a short question, e.g. =EXTRUCT("What is the number of employees at the company " & A1, "number"), as well as contain detailed instructions on how to get the answer or how to format the output. Read more in our Prompt Engineering Guidelines.
Syntax
// Full syntax
=EXTRUCT(question, outputFormat, showSources)
// Equivalent to =EXTRUCT(question, outputFormat, true)
=EXTRUCT(question, outputFormat)
// Equivalent to =EXTRUCT(question, "text", true)
=EXTRUCT(question)
| Parameter | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| question | string | Research Task Description. |
| outputFormat | "text", "url", "number", or a list of output values | Output Format. The default is text, which means no additional formatting is applied to the result. If a list of values is passed (e.g. {"private", "public"}), Extruct Agent will use one of the provided values for the answer. You can provide custom formatting instructions directly in question. |
| showSources | true, false | Whether to show sources in the answer. The default is true. |
question, use concatenation & operator. Example:
"Research the website " & A1 & " and find pricing plans information"Examples
| Name | Formula |
|---|---|
| Company Mission | =EXTRUCT("What is the company's mission? Company: " & A1) |
| Pricing Plans | =EXTRUCT("Find & summarize pricing plans of " & A1) |
| Remote-First | =EXTRUCT("Is this company " & A1 & " remote-first?", {"yes", "no"}) |
| LinkedIn Profile | =EXTRUCT("Find LinkedIn profile for company " & A1, "url", false) |
| Careers Page | =EXTRUCT("Find careers page URL of company " & A1, "url", false) |
| Company Revenue | =EXTRUCT("Find annual revenue for company " & A1, "number") |
| Number of Employees | =EXTRUCT("Find number of employees at company " & A1, "number") |
| Founding Year | =EXTRUCT("What is founding year of company " & A1, "number") |
| Acquisition Deals | =EXTRUCT("What recent acquisition deals company " & A1 & " was part of? Search news & company website") |
Output Formats
Extruct supports multiple output formats:
| Name | outputFormat | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Text | text (default) | Output is free-form text. You can include custom output formatting instructions inside question. |
| URL | url | Output is a URL. It is useful when you need to find links to websites, social media profiles, etc. Output example: https://extruct.ai |
| Number | number | Output is a numerical value or a range. Useful for employee counts, revenues, funding raised, etc. Output examples: 1984, 10-50, $1.3B, $1-10M |
| Labels | list of possible values, e.g. {"b2b", "b2c"}, {"yes", "no", "maybe"} | Output is one of the predefined values. Useful for labeling or classification tasks. |
Text Output
Text is the default output format. For example, to summarize the pricing plans of a company:
=EXTRUCT("Find pricing plans information of product " & A1)
If you want to turn off sources, you’ll have to pass outputFormat as well:
=EXTRUCT("Find pricing plans information of product " & A1, "text", false)
If you want to customize the output format, include instructions in the prompt:
=EXTRUCT("Find pricing plans information of product " & A1 & ". Format output as a bulleted list of pricing plans. Format each pricing plan as '- <name> (<price>): <features>`, "text")
URL Output
This mode instructs the Extruct Agent to return the URL as an output. For example, to find the company website:
=EXTRUCT("Find website of company " & A1, "url", false)
Note that the third parameter showSources is set to true by default. We’re setting it to false so that the output is a URL without sources attached.
Number Output
This mode instructs the Extruct Agent to return a numerical value as an output. You might want this format when the answer to your question is a number (e.g. founding year 1984), currency (e.g. revenue $1.3B), or a range (e.g. employee count range 11-50, revenue range $1-10M).
For example, to find company revenue:
=EXTRUCT("What is annual revenue of company " & A1, "number")
Or, without sources:
=EXTRUCT("What is annual revenue of company " & A1, "number", false)
Labels Output
This mode instructs the Extruct Agent to return one of the provided values as an answer. It is useful for any categorization task and particularly helpful when filtering / sorting based on the results is needed.
For example, to check if a company is B2B or B2C:
=EXTRUCT("Is this company " & A1 & " B2B or B2C primarily?", {"B2B", "B2C"})
Or, to understand the remote culture of a company:
=EXTRUCT("What is the remote culture of this company " & A1, {"remote", "in-office", "hybrid"})
Show Sources
By default, Extruct will attach sources when the answer is found. You can turn off sources by setting showSources parameter to false:
=EXTRUCT(question, outputFormat, false)
Note: Changing showSources value from true to false or vice versa does not consume additional credits.