Dotwave Saving a cleaning recipe
Most of the cleaning you do is not a one-off. A monthly sales extract, a recurring GA4 export, a client's transaction dump — the same file shows up again and again with the same problems. Cleaning recipes exist so you only have to solve those problems once. When you save a recipe, Dotwave remembers the full sequence of operations you ran and lets you replay it against the next file without redoing a single step by hand. This article explains what a recipe actually is, how to save one, and precisely what Dotwave stores.
What is a cleaning recipe?
A cleaning recipe is a named, reusable list of every cleaning step you applied to a dataset, recorded in the exact order you applied it. It is not a copy of your data and it does not alter your original file — Dotwave always keeps the untouched source and layers the recipe on top of it. Think of the recipe as the instructions, not the meal.
Concretely, a recipe remembers each operation in sequence. A typical one might read: drop duplicate rows, fill the age column with its median, then convert date_col from text into real dates. Because the steps are ordered, the recipe reproduces your logic faithfully — the fill happens before the conversion, exactly as you intended. Every operation you performed during the session becomes one entry in the recipe.
A recipe records your cleaning logic, not your data. The original file stays untouched, and the recipe is simply the ordered set of operations Dotwave replays on top of it. That separation is what makes a recipe safe to reuse on a different file next month.
How to save a recipe
Once you have finished cleaning a dataset and you are happy with the result, saving it as a recipe takes only a moment:
Apply all the operations you want the recipe to contain, then open the Recipes menu on the dataset.
Dotwave gathers every step you ran in this session and prepares them as a single reusable recipe.
Give it a clear, specific name such as Monthly Sales Cleaning so you can recognize it instantly next time.
The recipe is stored to your library and is immediately available to apply to any new dataset you upload.
What gets saved
When you save a recipe, Dotwave captures every cleaning step in order. For each step it records four things:
- Operation type — what the step does, for example dropping duplicates, filling missing values, or converting a data type.
- Column — which column the operation targets, so the step knows where to act when it runs again.
- Parameters — the specifics of the operation, such as "fill with median" or the target date format.
- Plain-English description — a readable summary of the step so you can review the recipe later and understand exactly what it will do without decoding settings.
Because all four are stored per step and the steps keep their original order, a saved recipe is a complete, self-documenting record of your pipeline. You can open it, read down the list, and know precisely what will happen the moment you apply it to a fresh file.
Name recipes after the client or report type: "Acme Corp Sales", "GA4 Export Clean". You'll re-use them every month.