Introduction to Expressions

An expression is any valid set of literals, variables and operators that evaluates to a single value.

An expression is used to build Filter criteria or a Formula.

Two different kinds expressions are used in the platform:

• Filter Expressions

• Used to select records.
• The value of the expression is always a Boolean (true or false) value.
• Expressions are created using fields, values, comparison operators, and logical operators.
• Fields in the object record can be referenced.
• Filter expressions do not include functions.

• Formula Expressions

• Used to return a value.
• The resulting value can be a number, a string, a date/time, or a Boolean (Logical: TRUE/FALSE).
• A wide variety of Formula Functions are available.
  For example:

ROUND( amount * 0.02, 2) (rounds the variable to the nearest 2 decimal places)

• Fields in the object record and in Lookup target records can be referenced, up to 5 levels deep.
• Logical operations are performed using functions AND() and OR()

The simplest expression is a literal value, a variable, or a formula function:

• 972 (a numeric literal)
• 'Steve' (a string literal)
• creation_date (a variable value)
• TODAY (a formula function that returns the current date)

More complex expressions are created by combining values with operators. For example:

amount * 0.02