Functions Reference

About functions
F
ILEMAKER FUNCTIONS REFERENCE 16
About functions
Working with formulas and functions
A function is a predefined, named formula that performs a specific calculation and returns a single,
specific value.
Most functions include three basic parts:
• the function
• a set of parentheses, if the function takes parameters
• the parameters required by the function
Each function returns a result of field type text, number, date, time, timestamp, or container.
A formula calculates a single value, based on constants (such as 1.07 or “hello”), operators (such as
“+” or “>”), and field references (such as Subtotal or InvoiceTotal) you enter. For example, if sales
tax in your area is 7% and you have a field named Subtotal, you could create a field named
InvoiceTotal that gets the value of the formula
Subtotal * 1.07.
If a formula is especially common or popular, FileMaker Pro gives it a name and defines exactly how
you should use it. A named and predefined formula is called a function. For example, if you want to
find the average of some test scores, you could write your own formula to add them all and divide by
the total number of scores. A simpler approach would be to use the function named
Average and
follow the rules defined for its use.
Using this functions reference
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