expressiontype(
expressiontype(
FORMULA
)

The expressiontype( function determines what kind of data is generated by an expression: text, number, etc.

Parameters

This function has one parameter:

formula – is the formula you want to get information about.

Description

The expressiontype( function returns a number from the following table:

Value | Data Type
0 | Text
5 | Floating Point Number
6 | Integer
11 | Binary Data
-1 | Error

Here are some simple examples:

    expressiontype("hello world") ☞ 0
    expressiontype(4/3) ☞ 5
    expressiontype(6) ☞ 6
    expressiontype(byte(6)) ☞ 11
    expressiontype(sqr(6,7)) ☞ -1

To see the expressiontype( function in action in a real application, look at the custom functions perlconstant(, rubyconstant(, pythonconstant(, phpconstant( and applescriptconstant(.

See Also

- binarydatatype( -- returns information about the type of structure data contained in a binary data value, if available (see Binary Data).
- datatype( -- determines what kind of data is in a field or variable: text, number, etc.
- info("datatype") -- returns the data type of the current field.

History

Version | Status | Notes
10.0 | Updated | Carried over from Panorama 6.0, but now returns -1 if expression would generate an error.