You can also use Parent in an expression to refer to an ancestor business object ("parent" or higher) in a business object hierarchy. For example, to refer to a field in the parent business object you might use something like this:

ProjectNumber={ this.BusinessObject.Parent.Fields['ProjectNumber'].Value }

Parent can appear multiple times in the expression depending on the level you want to refer to in your business object hierarchy. To refer to the current business object's great grandparent business object, you'd use it three times:

ProjectNumber={ this.BusinessObject.Parent.Parent.Parent.Fields['ProjectNumber'].Value }

A Note on Spaces in Expressions

Keep in mind that spaces outside curly braces in an expression are included in the final string. So, for example, DepartmentId= { this.BusinessObject.Fields['DepartmentId'].Value } (space after the equals sign) would, given a department ID of 100, yield DepartmentId= 100.

The extra space may or may not be important to the service.

Spaces immediately inside curly braces are not significant. For example, { this.BusinessObject.Fields['DepartmentId'].Value } is equivalent to {this.BusinessObject.Fields['DepartmentId'].Value}.

Support is included for these data types:

• Boolean
• String
• Integer or floating-point number
• Date
• DateTime

Boolean and number literal values must be in the form described here. For example, if you are in a country that uses a decimal comma (,), you must still use a decimal point or period in your expression.

Operator precedence is high to low.

Review this table for information on how each data type value is represented as a string.

Here are some examples of how numbers are supported in expressions:

Literals

A date type literal value must start with a prefix letter d followed by a single-quoted ISO 8601 date ('yyyy-MM-dd'), such as:

d'2020-10-24' or d'2000-01-01'

Operations

The following operators are supported: +, -, <, <=, >, >=, ==, and !=.

Supported +/- operations are:

• Date + Integer
• Integer + Date
• Date - Date (returns the difference in days as an integer value)
• Date - Integer

Here are some examples of expressions using supported operators. Resulting dates are in the default yyyy-MM-dd format.

Functions in Expressions

The add-in supports a couple of functions:

• Today ()
• Format(object obj, string formatString)

The Today () function returns today's date.

Suppose you want to create an expression for a search parameter that returns rows with hire dates that are later than 90 days before today's date. You would create a search parameter with a parameter name "q" and a parameter value of:

HireDate > '{ Today() - 90 }'

The Format function returns the string representation of the given date in a given format using "invariant" culture (a culture that is culture-insensitive). See InvariantCulture.

It includes two arguments:

• obj is a date. This can be a literal, a cell value from a field whose data type is Date (no time), the result of Today(), or the result of +/- operations (see the Operations section in this topic).
• formatString is the date format. Supported formats are:
  • yyyy-MM-dd (default)
  • MM-dd-yyyy
  • dd-MM-yyyy

Take, for example, a service that requires a date in the dd-MM-yyyy format. You would use the Format function to provide this format rather than the default format, yyyy-MM-dd, like this:

HireDate > { Format(this.BusinessObject.Fields['HireDate'].Value, 'dd-MM-yyyy') }

If the HireDate value for the current row is "2023-10-24", the final value of the line is:

HireDate > 24-10-2023

HireDate > '{ Format(this.BusinessObject.Fields['HireDate'].Value, 'dd-MM-yyyy') }'

Notes on Dates in Expressions

• Once you configure a property with an expression that relies on date values or date operations, the workbook is no longer compatible with add-in versions prior to 3.8.
• Date values do not have a time part. Date values do not have a time zone.
• Literal input, operations, and Format () are NOT supported for date-time values (from fields whose data type is Date-time).
• There is no function that parses a string and returns a date.

Time Values

The add-in doesn't store time zone information for date-time values. Time values are local. Note that:

• The add-in converts Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) values from the literal value to the local time value.
• During calculation, date-time values are processed as local values.
• The add-in converts local date-time to UTC date-time in its canonical string form when it's included in REST requests.

Literals

A date-time type literal value must start with the prefix letters, dt, followed by a single quoted ISO 8601 date-time in UTC ('yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ'), such as:

dt'2020-10-24T12:34:56Z'

Operations

The following operators are supported: +, -, <, <=, >, >=, ==, and !=.

Supported +/- operations (order matters)

• DateTime + Integer
• Integer + DateTime
• DateTime - Integer
• DateTime - DateTime (returns the diff in seconds as an integer value)

Here are some examples of expressions using supported operators.

Functions in Expressions

The add-in supports the Now function, Now (), that returns the current date and time as a date-time value. There are no parameters for this function.

Suppose you want to create an expression that displays a True or a False for an "overdue" field if a deadline has passed. In this case, you might want to compare a date-time value in the same row ("deadline" field) with the current date and time, like this:

{ this.BusinessObject.Fields['deadline'].Value < Now () }

In this expression, if the date-time value in the "deadline" field is earlier than now, the expression evaluates to True. If the "deadline" field value is "2024-04-15 09:00:00" and the current date and time (provided by the Now () function) is "2024-04-15 14:00:00" (both using local date-time), the expression result is True and the item is overdue.

Limitations

Setting the time zone is not supported.

There are three cases where expressions can reference workbook parameter values:

• Comparison value for a Search Editor condition
• Default value expression for row finder variables
• Download parameter values

Missing Workbook Parameters

The expression you write may refer to a workbook parameter that for whatever reason is not present in the workbook. You can write your expression to guard against such cases.

Let's suppose you have a search condition on a Salary field that filters for items less than a maximum value specified by a workbook parameter named maxSalaryParam.

Your search field is Salary, the operator is "less than" (<) and the expression is:

{ Workbook.Parameters['maxSalaryParam']?.Value }

If maxSalaryParam is not present in the workbook, the expression evaluates to null, and the entire search condition will be omitted from the download request. See Null Values in Expressions for more information about the ?. operator.

Empty Values in Workbook Parameters

The expression you write may refer to a workbook parameter that is present in the workbook but has no value specified.

Building off of the previous example, let's say that you want to use 5000 as the default value for maxSalaryParam if it is missing, or if it is present but has no value specified. In this case, the expression is:

{ Workbook.Parameters['maxSalaryParam']?.Value ?? '5000' }

See Null Values in Expressions for more information about the ?? operator.

Many add-in features support expressions. See these topics for some examples of expressions:

• Use Download Parameters to Limit Downloaded Data for an example of an expression that references a workbook parameter during download
• Configure a Cascading List of Values for an expression that populates a list of values based on the value the user selects from another list
• About Field Validation Rules for a number of examples of expressions that you might use in field validation rules
• REST Request Headers for an expression used in a REST request header that references the value in a row variable to determine which items to upload