Chapter 1: Developer Features

Value type

When you select Value, the syntax allows you to:

Specify ranges of existing cells, and
Perform functions (nested, if required) on these cells.

Syntax

=<command>(args[, ...])

where =<command>) is the operation to perform, and args are the arguments to use.

Commands

The available commands are:

sum – sums the arrays of cells specified
avg – calculates the average of arrays of cells
int – returns the integer portion of argument
diff – determines the difference between two arguments
div – divides two arguments
concatenate – concatenates all the specified cells
concatenate2 – concatenates all the specified cells, inserting pad character
min – determines minimum of specified arrays of cells
max – determines maximum of specified arrays of cells

Arguments

The available arguments are:

Scalar – specifies a single-element value, either literal text or cell content.

To specify single-cell content, use this syntax:
```
$R<x>F<y>
```
where <x> and <y> are (1-based) indexes into the cells. For example, $R4F5 specifies record 4, field 5.

The special value 0 can be used as an index to indicate the current value. For example, if you are editing record 6, field 8, $R0F9 refers to record 6, field 9. This is especially useful for rules that edit a number of records or fields at once. This enables you to use a single rule to perform the same operation on a range of cells.
Array – specifies a range of cells, which could be one or two dimensional.

Array arguments use the single-cell syntax, combined so that a range of cells is specified. That is:
```
$R<x>F<y>[:R<x'>F<y'>]
```
If the second cell specifier is not present, the array consists of the single cell; if the second cell is specified, the array consists of all the cells in the indicated range. For example, $R5F2:R6F3 would mean records R5F2, R6F2, R5F3, R6F3 (that is, four cells). Again, using 0 as an index means use the current record or field.

If a function is expecting an array argument, a scalar argument will be accepted and treated as a single cell array. However, if a function is expecting a scalar argument, an array argument will not be accepted.

For all functions, you can use the return value of another function as a valid argument.

Use the following commands described in this section in the <command> portion of the input when you specify a Value type rule.

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