FORMULAS QUICK REFERENCE

Math Operators
Operator Description
+ (Add) Calculates the sum of two values.
- (Subtract) Calculates the difference of two values.
* (Multiply) Multiplies its values.
/ (Divide) Divides its values.
^ (Exponentiation) Raises a number to a power of a specified number.
() (Open Specifies that the expressions within the open parenthesis and close
Parenthesis and parenthesis are evaluated first. All other expressions are evaluated using
Close Parenthesis) standard operator precedence.

Logical Operators
Operator Description
= and == (Equal) Evaluates if two values are equivalent.
<> and != (Not Evaluates if two values are not equivalent.
Equal)
< (Less Than) Evaluates if a value is less than the value that follows this symbol.
> (Greater Than) Evaluates if a value is greater than the value that follows this symbol.
<= (Less Than or Evaluates if a value is less than or equal to the value that follows this symbol.
Equal)
>= (Greater Than or Evaluates if a value is greater than or equal to the value that follows this
Equal) symbol.
&& (AND) Evaluates if two values or expressions are both true. Use this operator as an
alternative to the logical function AND.
|| (OR) Evaluates if at least one of multiple values or expressions is true. Use this
operator as an alternative to the logical function OR.

Text Operators
Operator Description
& (Concatenate) Connects two or more strings.

Last updated: September 14, 2012

 Formulas Quick Reference

Date and Time Functions

Function Description
DATE Returns a date value from year, month, and day values you enter. Salesforce
displays an error on the detail page if the value of the DATE function in a
formula field is an invalid date, such as February 29 in a non-leap year.
DATEVALUE Returns a date value for a date/time or text expression.
DATETIMEVALUE Returns a year, month, day and GMT time value.
DAY Returns a day of the month in the form of a number between 1 and 31.
MONTH Returns the month, a number between 1 (January) and 12 (December) in
number format of a given date.
NOW Returns a date/time representing the current moment.
TODAY Returns the current date as a date data type.
YEAR Returns the four-digit year in number format of a given date.

Informational Functions
Function Description
BLANKVALUE Determines if an expression has a value and returns a substitute expression
if it does not. If the expression has a value, returns the value of the
expression.
ISBLANK Determines if an expression has a value and returns TRUE if it does not.
If it contains a value, this function returns FALSE.
ISNULL Determines if an expression is null (blank) and returns TRUE if it is. If it
contains a value, this function returns FALSE.
NULLVALUE Determines if an expression is null (blank) and returns a substitute expression
if it is. If the expression is not blank, returns the value of the expression.
PRIORVALUE Returns the previous value of a field.

Logical Functions
Function Description
AND Returns a TRUE response if all values are true; returns a FALSE response
if one or more values are false.
CASE Checks a given expression against a series of values. If the expression is
equal to a value, returns the corresponding result. If it is not equal to any
values, it returns the else_result.
IF Determines if expressions are true or false. Returns a given value if true and
another value if false.

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 Formulas Quick Reference

Function Description
ISCHANGED Compares the value of a field to the previous value and returns TRUE if
the values are different. If the values are the same, this function returns
FALSE.
ISNEW Checks if the formula is running during the creation of a new record and
returns TRUE if it is. If an existing record is being updated, this function
returns FALSE.
ISNUMBER Determines if a text value is a number and returns TRUE if it is. Otherwise,
it returns FALSE.
NOT Returns FALSE for TRUE and TRUE for FALSE.
OR Determines if expressions are true or false. Returns TRUE if any expression
is true. Returns FALSE if all expressions are false.

Math Functions
Function Description
ABS Calculates the absolute value of a number. The absolute value of a number
is the number without its positive or negative sign.
CEILING Rounds a number up to the nearest integer.
DISTANCE Calculates the distance between two locations in miles or kilometers.
EXP Returns a value for e raised to the power of a number you specify.
FLOOR Returns a number rounded down to the nearest integer.
GEOLOCATION Returns a geolocation based on the provided latitude and longitude. Must
be used with the DISTANCE function.
LN Returns the natural logarithm of a specified number. Natural logarithms
are based on the constant e value of 2.71828182845904.
LOG Returns the base 10 logarithm of a number.
MAX Returns the highest number from a list of numbers.
MIN Returns the lowest number from a list of numbers.
MOD Returns a remainder after a number is divided by a specified divisor.
ROUND Returns the nearest number to a number you specify, constraining the new
number by a specified number of digits.
SQRT Returns the positive square root of a given number.

Text Functions
Function Description
BEGINS Determines if text begins with specific characters and returns TRUE if it
does. Returns FALSE if it does not.

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 Formulas Quick Reference

Function Description
BR Inserts a line break in a string of text.
CASESAFEID Converts a 15-character ID to a case-insensitive 18-character ID.
CONTAINS Compares two arguments of text and returns TRUE if the first argument
contains the second argument. If not, returns FALSE.
FIND Returns the position of a string within a string of text represented as a
number.
GETSESSIONID Returns the user’s session ID.
HYPERLINK Creates a link to a URL specified that is linkable from the text specified.
IMAGE Inserts an image with alternate text and height/width specifications.
INCLUDES Determines if any value selected in a multi-select picklist field equals a text
literal you specify.
ISPICKVAL Determines if the value of a picklist field is equal to a text literal you specify.
LEFT Returns the specified number of characters from the beginning of a text
string.
LEN Returns the number of characters in a specified text string.
LOWER Converts all letters in the specified text string to lowercase. Any characters
that are not letters are unaffected by this function. Locale rules are applied
if a locale is provided.
LPAD Inserts characters you specify to the left-side of a text string.
MID Returns the specified number of characters from the middle of a text string
given the starting position.
RIGHT Returns the specified number of characters from the end of a text string.
RPAD Inserts characters that you specify to the right-side of a text string.
SUBSTITUTE Substitutes new text for old text in a text string.
TEXT Converts a percent, number, date, date/time, or currency type field into text
anywhere formulas are used. Also, converts picklist values to text in
validation rules, formula fields, and field updates.
TRIM Removes the spaces and tabs from the beginning and end of a text string.
UPPER Converts all letters in the specified text string to uppercase. Any characters
that are not letters are unaffected by this function. Locale rules are applied
if a locale is provided.
VALUE Converts a text string to a number.

Summary Functions
The following functions are available with summary, matrix, and joined reports.

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 Formulas Quick Reference

Function Description
PARENTGROUPVAL This function returns the value of a specified parent grouping. A “parent”
grouping is any level above the one containing the formula. You can only
use this function in custom summary formulas for reports.
PREVGROUPVAL This function returns the value of a specified previous grouping. A “previous”
grouping is one that comes before the current grouping in the report. Choose
the grouping level and increment. The increment is the number of columns
or rows before the current summary. The default is 1; the maximum is 12.
You can only use this function in custom summary formulas for reports.

Advanced Functions
Function Description
GETRECORDIDS Returns an array of strings in the form of record IDs for the selected records
in a list, such as a list view or related list.
INCLUDE Returns content from an s-control snippet. Use this function to reuse
common code in many s-controls.
LINKTO Returns a relative URL in the form of a link (href and anchor tags) for a
custom s-control or Salesforce page.
REGEX Compares a text field to a regular expression and returns TRUE if there is
a match. Otherwise, it returns FALSE. A regular expression is a string used
to describe a format of a string according to certain syntax rules.
REQUIRESCRIPT Returns a script tag with source for a URL you specify. Use this function
when referencing the Force.com AJAX Toolkit or other JavaScript toolkits.
URLFOR Returns a relative URL for an action, s-control, Visualforce page, or a file
in a static resource archive in a Visualforce page.
VLOOKUP Returns a value by looking up a related value on a custom object similar to
the VLOOKUP() Excel function.

Encoding Functions
Function Description
HTMLENCODE Encodes text and merge field values for use in HTML by replacing
characters that are reserved in HTML, such as the greater-than sign (>),
with HTML entity equivalents, such as &gt;.
JSENCODE Encodes text and merge field values for use in JavaScript by inserting escape
characters, such as a backslash (\), before unsafe JavaScript characters, such
as the apostrophe (').
JSINHTMLENCODE Encodes text and merge field values for use in JavaScript within HTML
tags by inserting escape characters before unsafe JavaScript characters and
replacing characters that are reserved in HTML with HTML entity
equivalents.

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 Formulas Quick Reference

Function Description
URLENCODE Encodes text and merge field values for use in URLs by replacing characters
that are illegal in URLs, such as blank spaces, with the code that represent
those characters as defined in RFC 3986, Uniform Resource Identifier (URI):
Generic Syntax. For example, blank spaces are replaced with %20, and
exclamation points are replaced with %21.