Compound value
A compound value is one cell holding several facts at once, such as 1850x595x655 for three dimensions or S/M/L/XL for four sizes.
- Compound cell
- Multi-value cell
What it means
Suppliers often pack several facts into one cell: dimensions as 1850x595x655, sizes as S/M/L/XL, colours as Grey/Charcoal. A person can read them. A filter, a sort or a feed cannot, because each needs one fact per field.
The fix is to split each into its own fields: height, width and depth in three columns, with the unit in each header, or one row per size. Only a header or the source can say which number is which. One supplier writes length by width by height, another height by width by depth.
Not every slash is a list, though. Google writes a size with two measurements as one value: 16/34 for a 16 inch neck and a 34 inch sleeve.1 Read the rest of the row before splitting.
Think of it like this
Picture one jar labelled spices. Everything may be in it, but you cannot find the cumin without tipping it all out, and you cannot tell when it runs low.
For example
A fridge freezer’s Dimensions cell reads 1850x595x655, with no unit. Once the source confirms the order and the unit, it becomes Height 1850 mm, Width 595 mm and Depth 655 mm. A shopper can filter on those three values and a channel can read them.
Why it matters
Until it is split, nothing inside it can be used. Google’s size attribute takes one value per product, so a feed reads S/M/L/XL as the size of one product, not four.1 OpenAI’s product feed specification for ChatGPT takes length, width and height as separate numbers, plus one unit.2
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help. Size [size].
- OpenAI Developers. Agentic Commerce product feed specification: Products.