Selecting functions

The function list displays all available functions and operators. Scroll to select a function from the list, or, for easier searching, use the drop-down list to display a subset of functions or operators. Available functions are grouped into categories for easier searching.

Following are details about the categories. For more detailed information, refer to the IBM® SPSS® Modeler documentation.

Table 1. Function categories
Function Type	Description
Recently Used Functions	Contains a list of functions used during the current session.
Operators	Lists all the operators you can use when building expressions. Operators are also available from the buttons in the center of the dialog
Information Functions	Used to gain insight into field values. For example, the function `is_string` returns true for all records whose type is a string.
Conversion Functions	Used to construct new fields or convert storage type. For example, the function `to_timestamp` converts the selected field to a timestamp.
Comparison Functions	Used to compare field values to each other or to a specified string. For example, `<=` is used to compare whether the values of two fields are lesser or equal.
Logical Functions	Used to perform logical operations, such as `if`, `then`, `else` operations.
Numeric Functions	Used to perform numeric calculations, such as the natural log of field values.
Random Functions	Used to randomly select items or generate numbers.
String Functions	Used to perform various operations on strings, such as `stripchar`, which allows you to remove a specified character.
Datetime Functions	Used to perform various operations on date, time, and timestamp fields.
Blanks And Null Functions	Used to access, flag, and frequently fill user-specified blanks or system-missing values. `@BLANK` is not supported (because its behavior is dependent on other nodes like the Type node). `@NULL(FIELD)` and `undef` are supported. `@NULL(FIELD)` is type Boolean and returns true if the value of `FIELD` is the system-missing $null$ . Returns false for all other values, including user-defined blanks. If you want to check for both, use `@BLANK(FIELD)` and `@NULL(FIELD)`. `undef` is type Any and is used generally to enter a $null$ value—for example, to fill blank values with nulls in the Filler node.
All Functions	Contains a complete list of available functions.