formulaidentfiers(
formulaidentfiers(
FORMULA
)

The formulaidentfiers( function returns a list of identifiers (fields and variables) used in a formula.

Parameters

This function has one parameter:

formula – is the formula to be analyzed. If the formula is specified inline in the function itself, it must be quoted (see Quotes). Otherwise, you can pre-store the formula in a field or variable.

Description

The function returns a list of identifiers (fields and variables) used in a formula. The list is returned as a carriage return delimited text array.

For example,

    formulaidentifiers({alpha+cr()+bravo+sqr(Price)+upper(Name)})

will return the four identifiers that appear in this formula:

    alpha
    bravo
    Price
    Name

Note that this function doesn’t check to see if each identifier is a field or a variable, or even if it exists at all. It simply analyzes the text of the formula to produce the list. Here is one way you could check the list for undefined identifiers.

    let items = formulaidentifiers({alpha+cr()+bravo+sqr(Price)+upper(Name)})
    looparray items,cr(),item
        let itemtype = catcherror("",datatype(item))
        if itemtype = ""
            message item+" does not exist."
        endif
    endloop

See Also

- formulafields( -- returns a list of fields used in a formula.
- formulastrings( -- returns a data array of strings (text constants) used in a formula.
- formulavalue( -- calculates the result of a formula based on data in the current record of any open database. This is similar to the fieldvalue( function, but allows any formula to be used, rather than just a single field.
- formulavariables( -- returns a list of variables used in a formula.

History

Version | Status | Notes
10.2 | New | New in this version.