Common Functions

There are over 115 functions available and these are listed in Functions, but to help you get started here is a short list of commonly used functions:

1. Comments can be added to a single line using // or to a section using /* */.
2. if: used where you need to evaluate a simple condition before processing an expression.
3. ifNull: If its first value is provided then this is the returned value, else it will return the second value.
4. switch: evaluates a set of conditions in turn, and returns the associated result for the first match.
5. forEach: Iterates over an Array or Recordset and processes a script for each entry.
6. listToString: takes a list and returns a string delimited by a specified value e.g. comma or pipe.
7. split: Splits a string where a separator occurs, returning a list of value as an array..
8. contains: Used on a string will return true (1), if a string contains another specified string.
9. listContains: Used on a list returns the position of an entry in a list (with 1 being the first item) if the value being looked for is found in the list, and false (0) otherwise.
10. replaceAll: Replace all occurrences of a pattern with a replacement string. Also, see replaceFirst.
11. dateDiff: Return the time difference between two dates in milliseconds.
12. dateAdd: Add or subtract from a date using a specified unit e.g. _MONTH.
13. now: Returns the current day and time, and today returns just the day.
14. _NULL: is how to declare a null value e.g. $output = _NULL.
15. substring: Returns the portion of the supplied string between specified character positions.
16. stringLength: Returns the length of a string.
17. trim: Removes leading and trailing white spaces from a string, returning the cleansed string.
18. toString: Converts a value from select data types into a string. For example, a date.
19. toDate: Converts a string in a recognised date format (e.g. 20120521 or 20120521.172108) into a date.
20. countElements: Returns the number of elements in an Array or Recordset.

Expression Operators

The following relational operators are available:

• ! (not; reverses the value of a logical expression)
• && (and; can also use the attribute function and)
• || (or; can also use the attribute function or)
• > (greater than; can also use the attribute function gt)
• < (less that; can also use the attribute function lt)
• != (not equals; can also use the attribute function ne)
• == (equals; can also use the attribute function eq)
• >= (greater than or equal to; can also use the attribute function ge)
• <= (less than or equal to; can also use the attribute function le)

The following arithmetic operators are available:

• + (add; can also use the attribute function sum)
• - (minus; can also use the attribute function sum, reversing the sign of the second operand)
• / (divide)
• * (multiply)

Debugging

• debug: Adds a debug message into the System Console. This function is often used when creating a model and trying to work out why an Expression is not behaving as expected.
• error: Adds an error message into the System Console and displays the message to the user. 

Variables

PhixFlow contains a number of Internal Variables available to PhixScript used for obtaining system and user information.

Variables in PhixFlow are declared using a $variable. The data type is implied by the first value entered, for example:

1. $myArray  = []. Creates an array.
2. $myString = "Hello World". Creates a string.
3. $myDate   = toDate("20120521"). Creates a date.
4. $myNumber = 42. Creates an integer.