n8n Expressions Cheat Sheet: 60+ Copy-Paste Examples

This n8n expressions cheat sheet gives you 70 copy-paste expressions grouped by the job they do: reading data, text, numbers, dates, arrays and objects, lookups and conditionals. Each one goes between double curly braces in a field switched to Expression, and each uses only functions listed in n8n's expression reference for the current release.

Checked October 2026 against n8n's expression reference, its pages on expressions, referencing previous nodes and dates and times, and the extension functions in the source of n8n 2.42.6, the stable release on 9 October 2026. Nothing here was executed for this page. Where a line shows a result, it is the one printed in n8n's reference.

This is the quick-reference page in our n8n hub. Field and node names such as email and Get orders are placeholders: swap in your own. One thing this page is not: cron syntax for the Schedule Trigger is a different language, covered in our n8n cron expression guide.

n8n $json syntax: read data from the current item and earlier nodes

$json is the JSON of the item the node is working on, and the docs call it shorthand for $input.item.json. Dots walk down into nested data, square brackets handle awkward names and array positions, and $('Node name') reaches back to any earlier node.

// A field on the current item
{{ $json.email }}

// A field name with spaces or symbols
{{ $json['First Name'] }}

// A nested field, such as a webhook body
{{ $json.body.city }}

// The first element of an array field
{{ $json.items[0].sku }}

// A nested field whose parent may be missing (undefined, not an error)
{{ $json.customer?.email }}

// The linked item from an earlier node
{{ $('Get customer').item.json.email }}

// The first item an earlier node returned
{{ $('Get orders').first().json.id }}

// The last item an earlier node returned
{{ $('Get orders').last().json.id }}

// How many items an earlier node returned
{{ $('Get orders').all().length }}

// The file name of a binary attachment
{{ $('HTTP Request').item.binary.data.fileName }}

The older $items() syntax and its replacements are covered with a worked example in our n8n MongoDB guide. For the shape of webhook data (body, headers, query), see the n8n webhook guide.

n8n expressions examples for text and numbers

Text and number functions chain with a dot, left to right. n8n adds its own helpers, such as extractEmail() and round(), on top of plain JavaScript methods, and the editor lists them when you type a dot after a value.

// Clean up an email address
{{ $json.email.trim().toLowerCase() }}

// Title case: "quick a brown FOX" becomes "Quick a Brown Fox"
{{ $json.name.toTitleCase() }}

// Does the text contain a word? Returns true or false
{{ $json.subject.toLowerCase().includes('refund') }}

// Remove every space
{{ $json.phone.replaceAll(' ', '') }}

// Comma list to array: "wind,fire,water" becomes ['wind', 'fire', 'water']
{{ $json.tags.split(',') }}

// The first 100 characters
{{ $json.text.slice(0, 100) }}

// Pull the first email address out of free text
{{ $json.message.extractEmail() }}

// Domain of an email or URL: me@example.com becomes example.com
{{ $json.email.extractDomain() }}

// Strip HTML tags
{{ $json.html.removeTags() }}

// Make text safe to put in a URL
{{ $json.query.urlEncode() }}

// Text to number: "123" becomes 123
{{ $json.amount.toNumber() }}

// Round to two decimals: 1.256 becomes 1.26
{{ $json.total.round(2) }}

// A line total
{{ ($json.qty * $json.price).round(2) }}

// A percentage with one decimal
{{ ($json.part / $json.whole * 100).round(1) }}

// Currency: 123456.789 becomes 123.456,79 €
{{ $json.total.format('de-DE', {'style': 'currency', 'currency': 'EUR'}) }}

// The larger of two numbers
{{ $max($json.a, $json.b) }}

Two details from the reference. toNumber() throws an error when the text does not start with a valid number, so validate imported data first. And extractEmail(), extractDomain() and extractUrl() return undefined when they find nothing, which is a case for $ifEmpty().

Dates and times

Every date in an n8n expression is a Luxon DateTime. $now is the current moment and $today is midnight at the start of today, both in the workflow's time zone. Dates that arrive from other nodes are text, so convert them with toDateTime() before doing maths.

// Now, as an ISO timestamp
{{ $now.toISO() }}

// Today's date in the form 2026-10-11
{{ $now.toFormat('yyyy-MM-dd') }}

// A readable date and time, such as Apr 30, 2024, 10:00 PM
{{ $now.toLocaleString({'dateStyle':'medium', 'timeStyle':'short'}) }}

// Seven days ago, from midnight today
{{ $today.minus({days: 7}) }}

// Three days from now
{{ $now.plus(3, 'days') }}

// The first moment of this month
{{ $now.startOf('month') }}

// The last moment of this month
{{ $now.endOf('month') }}

// Text to a date you can do maths on (ISO 8601, HTTP, RFC2822, SQL)
{{ $json.createdAt.toDateTime() }}

// A date in your own format, such as 23-06-2019
{{ DateTime.fromFormat($json.date, 'dd-MM-yyyy') }}

// Unix seconds to a date
{{ $json.created.toDateTime('s') }}

// Whole days since a date
{{ $now.diff($json.createdAt.toDateTime(), 'days').days.floor() }}

// The same moment in another time zone
{{ $now.setZone('America/New_York') }}

// Is today a weekday? 1 is Monday and 7 is Sunday
{{ $now.weekday <= 5 }}

// Relative text, such as "in 1 day"
{{ $json.dueDate.toDateTime().toRelative() }}

n8n also has its own diffTo() and diffToNow() shortcuts for date differences. The cheat sheet uses Luxon's diff() because its direction is unambiguous: the date on the left minus the date in the brackets. Whichever you use, look at the sign in the preview.

Arrays and objects

An array field takes JavaScript's map, filter and find with arrow functions, plus n8n helpers such as pluck(), sum() and chunk(). Object helpers work on $json itself or on any nested object.

// The number of elements
{{ $json.items.length }}

// One field from every element
{{ $json.items.pluck('name') }}

// Transform every element
{{ $json.items.map(item => item.name.toUpperCase()) }}

// Keep the elements that match
{{ $json.items.filter(item => item.qty > 0) }}

// The first element that matches
{{ $json.items.find(item => item.sku === 'A1') }}

// Add up one field
{{ $json.items.pluck('price').sum() }}

// Array to text
{{ $json.tags.join(', ') }}

// Remove duplicates
{{ $json.tags.unique() }}

// Sort objects by a text field
{{ $json.items.sort((a, b) => a.name.localeCompare(b.name)) }}

// Split into batches of 50
{{ $json.ids.chunk(50) }}

// The field names of the current item
{{ $json.keys() }}

// Does a field exist? Returns true or false
{{ $json.hasField('email') }}

// Drop one field
{{ $json.removeField('password') }}

// The whole item as a JSON string
{{ $json.toJsonString() }}

Lookups and workflow data

A lookup is two steps in one line: take every item of another node with .all(), then find the one whose key matches the current item. The rest of this group reads facts about the run itself, which belong in every alert and log line you send.

// Find the matching row in another node's output
{{ $('Price list').all().find(row => row.json.sku === $json.sku)?.json.price }}

// Every value of one field from another node
{{ $('Get users').all().map(row => row.json.email) }}

// Query nested JSON with JMESPath: the first name where age is over 20
{{ $jmespath($json.people, '[?age > `20`].name | [0]') }}

// A workflow variable (needs the Variables feature)
{{ $vars.apiBaseUrl }}

// The ID of this execution
{{ $execution.id }}

// How the run started: test or production
{{ $execution.mode }}

// The name of this workflow
{{ $workflow.name }}

// The position of the current item, starting at 0
{{ $itemIndex }}

$vars needs the Variables feature, which the docs list for Cloud Pro and Enterprise and self-hosted Business and Enterprise. One more helper belongs to AI workflows: in a tool node attached to an AI Agent, {{ $fromAI('email', 'The customer email address') }} lets the model supply that parameter.

Conditionals and fallbacks

Most broken expressions are missing a fallback, not a function. JavaScript's ternary and ?? work as they do anywhere, and n8n adds $if() and $ifEmpty(), which treats undefined, null, empty strings, empty arrays and empty objects as empty.

// Pick one of two values
{{ $json.total > 100 ? 'priority' : 'standard' }}

// The same choice with n8n's helper
{{ $if($now.hour < 17, 'Good day', 'Good evening') }}

// A fallback for an empty field
{{ $ifEmpty($json.name, 'there') }}

// A fallback for null or undefined only
{{ $json.nickname ?? $json.firstName }}

// Both conditions must hold
{{ $json.status === 'paid' && $json.total > 0 }}

// The value is one of a list
{{ ['DE', 'AT', 'CH'].includes($json.country) }}

// Is a field empty? Also true for null and undefined
{{ $json.email.isEmpty() }}

// Use a node's data only if that node ran
{{ $if($('Lookup').isExecuted, $('Lookup').first().json.id, '') }}

When an expression fails outright, the message tells you which kind of problem it is. Our list of common n8n errors and fixes has the expression errors with their exact text.

n8n expression editor: where expressions go and when to stop using them

Any node field can hold an expression: switch it from Fixed to Expression, then type or drag a value in from the INPUT pane. Text outside the braces stays as text, so Hi {{ $json.firstName }} is a valid field value. The editor's own tip sums it up: anything inside the braces is JavaScript. For more than one statement, the n8n docs wrap the code in a function that calls itself:

{{(()=>{
  let end = DateTime.fromISO('2017-03-13');
  let start = DateTime.fromISO('2017-02-13');
  let diffInMonths = end.diff(start, 'months');
  return diffInMonths.toObject();
})()}}

That is the ceiling for an expression. Past it, pick a different tool:

The docs recommend the Edit Fields node for exactly that last case: transform the data once, then keep later fields to plain references. If writing these one-liners makes you want to build the whole product in code, our AI SaaS Builder program has no n8n lessons, but it does cover Claude Code and a Next.js and Supabase app from first commit to deployment.

Before you publish a workflow that depends on an expression

n8n expressions: FAQ