Tutorial: writing expressions

Show me how

For a demonstration of how to write expressions that use integer, decimal, and currency fields, see the following video. You also learn how to use parentheses for precedence and how to apply operands to lists and dates.

Basic expressions

Let's start with some basic expressions, where the operation type is Variable.

Table 1. Examples of basic expressions
Operation name	Expression	Result
`N1`	`1 + 2`	`N1` is set to 3
`D1`	`2020-10-10 + 2`	`D1` is set to `2020-10-12`
`S1`	`"abc" + "def"`	`S1` is set to `abcdef`

Expressions that use operation names

Then, to use those operations in expressions in subsequent operations, enclose the operation name in [$$], as shown in the following examples:

Table 2. Examples of expressions that use operation names
Expression	Result	Note
`([$N1$] * 2)+100`	106	Where `N1` contains the expression, `1 + 2`
`[$D1$] + 10`	`2020-10-22`	Where `D1` contains the expression, `2020-10-10 + 2`
`[$S1$] + [$S2$]`	`abcdefxyz`	Where `S1` and `S2` contain the string values `abcdef` and `xyz`, respectively

Expressions that use object fields

Expressions can retrieve values from object fields, as shown in the following examples:

Table 3. Examples of expressions that use object fields
Expression	Result	Note
`[$Field Group:Number1$] + [$Field Group:Number2$]`	3	Where the value in `Number1` is `1` and `Number2` is `2`
`[$Field Group:Date1$] + 2`	`2020-10-12`	Where the value in `Date1` is `2020-10-10`
`[$Field Group:String1$] + [$Field Group:String2$]`	`abcdefxyz`	Where the value in `String1` is `abcdef` and `String2` is `xyz`

Expressions that mix operation names and object fields

You can mix operation names and object fields in an expression, as shown in the following examples:

Table 4. Examples of basic expressions that mix operation names and fields names
Expression	Result	Note
`[$N1$] * [$Field Group:Number3$]`	300	Where `Number3` contains 100.
`[$D1$] + 10`	`2020-10-22`	Where `[$D1$]` contains the expression, `2020-10-10 + 2`
`[$S1$] + [$Field Group:Description$]`	`abcdefDescription value`	Where `[$Field Group:Description$]` contains `Description value`

Expressions that use functions

You can apply functions to values, fields, and operations, as shown in the following examples:

Table 5. Examples of functions that are applied to values, fields, and operations.
Expression	Result	Note
`max(5000, 10000, 15000, 20000)`	20000	The `max` function finds the maximum value in a list.
`max ([$Child:LossImpact/OPSS-LossIm:Estimated Loss$])`	20000.00	Where four child objects contain the following values in the `Estimated Loss` field: 5000.00, 10000.00, 15000.00, 20000.00
`max ([$Loss1$],[$Loss2$], [$Loss3$], [$Loss4$])`	20000.00	Where the four operations that are given contain the following values: 5000.00, 10000.00, 15000.00, 20000.00
`count ([$Child:LossImpact/OPSS-LossIm:Estimated Loss$])`	4	Number of items