SharePoint uses pretty much the same engine as Excel for it’s calculated columns and field validation stuff. There are some exceptions, such as NETWORKDAYS and some other functions not being included. Try prototyping your formulas in Excel first and then applying them to SharePoint.
The goal of this page is to become the definitive list of formulas and operations used in SharePoint Calculated Columns. I try to answer all formula requests but i’d rather see you learn the fundamentals than get a quick fix, so please read all references carefully before submitting a scenario via the comments.
In terms of “programming is hard” – there’s not a whole lot to this stuff as it is very well defined and encapsulated. Once you master it, you will be the new Office rockstar- careers have been built on this.
Did I miss one? Please drop a note in the comments and i’ll get it added!
| Type | Explanation | Output |
| NUMBERS | 0 | |
| Profit | Shows the percentage profit on a sale (tick “Show as percentage”) | 10% |
| ([Price]-[Cost])/[Cost] | ||
| Markup | Gives a price from a cost and a percentage markup | $120.00 |
| [Cost]*(1+[Markup]) | ||
| Commission | Gives the commission due on a sale (based on a commission %) | $25.00 |
| [Sale]*[Commission] | ||
| Formatting | Formatted with $ curency, comma thousand seperator and 2 decimal places | $1234.56 |
| TEXT([Sales],”$#,###.00″); | ||
| Negative numbers in brackets | (95.99) | |
| TEXT([Sales],”#,###.00;(#,###.00)”); | ||
| OPERATORS | ||
| & | Concatanate (put two text values or fields together) 4 & “3” |
43 |
| ^ | Power (e.g. [Field]^2 = Squared) 4^3 |
64 |
| /, +, -, * | Divide, Add, Subtract, Multiply | |
| RELATIONAL OPERATORS | ||
| = (Equal to) | > (Greater than) | >= (Greater than or equal to) |
| <> Not equal to) | < (Less than) | <= (Less than or equal to) |
| DATE AND TIME | ||
| Time only | TEXT([DateTimeField],”hh:mm:ss”) | 01:21:51 |
| Weekday | TEXT([DateField],”dddd”) | Wednesday |
| TEXT([DateField],”ddd”) | Wed | |
| Month | TEXT([DateField],”mmmm”) | October |
| TEXT([DateField],”mmm”) | Oct | |
| Year | TEXT([DateField],”yyyy”) | 2012 |
| TEXT([DateField],”yy”) | 12 | |
| Combinations | TEXT([DateField],”mmmm dd, yyyy” | October 17, 2012 |
| Fiscal Year | Shows which fiscal year a date falls in (1st October) | |
| FY & IF(DATE(YEAR([Date]), 10, 1)>[Date], YEAR([Date]), YEAR([Date])+1) | FY 2012 | |
| Season | Shows which season a date falls in. Takes into account one month offset from quarter. | |
| CHOOSE(INT((MOD(MONTH(When)+1,12)/4))+ 1,”Winter”,”Spring”,”Summer”,”Autumn”) |
Spring | |
| Quarter | Shows which quarter a date falls in | |
| Q & INT((MONTH([Date])-1)/3)+1 | Q1 | |
| Q & INT((MONTH([Date])-1)/3)+1 & “-” & YEAR([Date]) | Q1-2012 | |
| Week Number | Shows the week number (US style) | |
| ROUNDDOWN(([Date]-DATE(YEAR([Date]),1,1)+ WEEKDAY(DATE(YEAR([Date]),1,1))-WEEKDAY([Date])+1)/7,0)+1 |
5 | |
| Week Commencing | Shows the date of the first day of the week (useful for grouping by week) | |
| [Date]-WEEKDAY([Date])+1 | 3/4/2012 | |
| Day/Night | Shows whether time is day or night | |
| IF(AND(HOUR([Time])>6,HOUR([Time])<18),”Day”,”Night”) | Day | |
| AM/PM | Shows whether a time is AM or PM | |
| IF(HOUR([Time]) < 12,”AM”,”PM”) | PM | |
| OTHER | ||
| Modified | Shows whether an item has been modified since creation | |
| IF([Modified] > [Created], “Changed”, “Original”) | Changed | |
| Marks out of ten | Gives general comments on a mark out of ten | |
| CHOOSE(INT([Marks]/3),”Bad”,”Poor”,”Good”,”Great”) | Great | |
| Random String | Chooses a string at random, based on the time (in seconds) | |
| CHOOSE(MOD(TEXT(Created,”s”),2)+1,”String A”,”String B”, “String C”) | String C | |
| TEXT | ||
| TEXT (Value, Format) | Converts Value to a Text value, using Format | 2012|04 |
| TEXT([Created], “yyyy|mm”) | ||
| REPT (Text, Number) | Repeats Text the given Number of times | HelloHelloHello |
| REPT(“Hello”,3) | ||
| FIXED (Num, Dec, NoCommas) | Returns Number with the given number of decimals as text (commas optional) | |
| FIXED(2044.23,1,TRUE) | 2044.23 | |
| FIXED(2044.23,0,FALSE) | 2,044 | |
| LEN (Text) | The length of Text | 4 |
| LEN(“Hola”) | ||
| LEFT (Text, Number) | Return X characters from the left | |
| LEFT(“The Quick Brown Fox”, 5) | The Q | |
| RIGHT (Text, Number) | Return X characters from the right | |
| RIGHT(“The Quick Brown Fox”, 5) | n Fox | |
| MID (Text, Num1, Num2) | Returns Number2 characters from the middle of Text, starting at Number1 | |
| MID(“The Quick Brown Fox”, 4, 15) | Quick Brown | |
| SEARCH (Text1, Text2, Num) | Returns the index of Text1 within Text2,starting the search at index Number | |
| SEARCH(“Banana”, “Banana Banana”, 4) | 8 | |
| LOWER (Text) | Text in lower case | |
| LOWER(“Hello”) | hello | |
| UPPER (Text) | Text in upper case | |
| UPPER(“Hello”) | HELLO | |
| PROPER (Text) | Capitalize first letter of each word | |
| PROPER(“good morning”) | Good Morning | |
| TRIM (Text) | Removes spaces from the start and end | |
| TRIM(” Hello “) | Hello | |
| CLEAN (Text) | Returns Text without non-printable characters added by clipboard or similar | |
| CLEAN(“String1? String2??”) | String1 String2 | |
| REPLACE (T1, N1, N2, T2) | Replaces Number2 characters starting at Number1 from Text1 with Text2 | |
| REPLACE(“Hello”,2,4,”i”) | Hi | |
| CONCATENATE (T1, T2, …) | Combines the string values together into one string | |
| CONCATENATE(“A”,” Fine “,”Morning”) | A Fine Morning | |
| DOLLAR (Number, Decimals) | Converts number to currency text, with the given number of decimals | |
| DOLLAR(11.267,2) | $11.27 | |
| EXACT (Text1, Text2) | Checks if two text values are identical, returns boolean | |
| EXACT(“Hello”,”hello”) | False | |
| MATH | ||
| SUM (Number1, Number2, …) | Returns the total of all Numbers and number-like values | |
| SUM(0, 2, “26”, 100, TRUE) | 128 | |
| MINA (Number1, Number2, …) | Gets the smallest of the numbers, including non-number values | |
| MINA(0, 2, “26”, 100, “MyString”, TRUE) | 0 | |
| MIN (Number1, Number2, …) | Gets the smallest of the numbers, including Text fields containing numbers | |
| MIN(0, 1, “26”, 100) | 0 | |
| MAXA (Number1, Number2, …) | Gets the largest of the numbers, including on-number values | |
| MAXA(0, 2, “26”, 100, “MyString”, TRUE) | 100 | |
| COUNTA (Value1, Value2, …) | Counts all values, including empty text (“”), ignoring empty columns | |
| COUNTA(5, 0,TRUE) | 3 | |
| COUNT (Num1, Num2, …) | Averages the Numbers, ignoring non-Number values | |
| COUNT(5, 0,TRUE) | 2 | |
| AVERAGEA (Num1, Num2, …) | Averages the Numbers, non-Number values are interpreted | |
| AVERAGEA(5,0, TRUE) | 2 | |
| AVERAGE (Num1, Num2, …) | Averages the Numbers, ignoring non-Number values | |
| AVERAGE(10, 0, “”, “0”) | 5 | |
| VALUE (Text) | Converts Text to a Number, Date or Time, according to its format | |
| VALUE(“00:05″) | 00:05 | |
| TRUNC (Number) | Returns Number with decimals removed | |
| TRUNC(14.999999) | 14 | |
| SQRT (Number) | Returns the square root | |
| SQRT(25) | 5 | |
| SIGN (Number) | Returns -1 for negative numbers, 1 for positive, and 0 when 0 | |
| SIGN(-5.2786) | -1 | |
| ROUNDUP (Num1, Num2) | Rounds Number1 to Number2 decimals, always rounding up | |
| ROUNDUP(22.0001, 0) | 23 | |
| ROUNDDOWN (Num1, Num2) | Rounds Number1 to Number2 decimals, always rounding down | |
| ROUNDDOWN(122.492, 1) | 122.4 | |
| ROUND (Number1, Number2) | Rounds Number1 to Number2 decimals | |
| ROUND(221.298, 1) | 221.6 | |
| PI () | Returns Pi to 15 decimal places | |
| PI() | 3.14159265358979 | |
| ODD (Number) | Rounds Number up to the nearest odd number | |
| ODD(1.5) | 3 | |
| MOD (Number1, Number2) | Returns the remainder of Number1 divided by Number2 | |
| MOD(5, 4) | 1 | |
| EVEN (Number) | Rounds Number up to the nearest even number | |
| EVEN(0.5) | 2 | |
| ABS (Number) | Makes a number positive if it is negative | |
| ABS(-1) | 1 | |
| LOGICAL | ||
| AND (Condition1, Condition2) | Returns True if both conditions are True | |
| AND(4>=3,3>2) | True | |
| OR (Condition1, Condition2) | Returns True if either condition is True | |
| OR(4>=3, 3<2) | True | |
| NOT (Condition1) | Returns the opposite to the condition | |
| NOT(1=1) | False | |
| CHOOSE(Num, Val1, Val2, …) | Returns the value corresponding to the number. Up to 29 values can be used. | |
| CHOOSE(2, “A”, “B”, “C”, “D”) | B | |
| IF(Condition, Val1, Val2) | If Conditon is true, return Value1, otherwise return Value2 | |
| IF([Modified] > [Created], “Changed”, Original) | Changed | |
| ERROR & TYPE CHECKING | ||
| ISTEXT (Value) | Returns True if Value is Text | |
| ISTEXT(99) | False | |
| ISNUMBER (Value) | Returns True if Value is a Number, oherwise False | |
| ISNUMBER(99) { | True | |
| ISNONTEXT (Value) | Returns True if Value is not text or is empty, False otherwise | |
| ISNONTEXT(99) | True | |
| ISNA (Value) | Returns True if Value returns error #N/A, otherwise False | |
| ISERR(#N/A) | True | |
| ISLOGICAL (Value) | Returns True if Value returns a logical value (True or False), False otherwise | |
| ISLOGICAL(FALSE) | True | |
| ISERR (Value) | Returns True if Value returns an error (except #N/A), otherwise False | |
| ISERR(#REF!) | True | |
| ISBLANK (Value) | Returns True if Value is empty, otherwise False | |
| IF(ISBLANK([Attendee]) | Needs Attendee | |
| FORBIDDEN COLUMNS | ||
| Lookup columns | Not supported | |
| [ID] | Only works on column addition/update, will not work from then on | |
| [Today] and [Me] | Only available in default columns | |
AND function
Returns the logical value TRUE if all of the arguments are TRUE; returns FALSE if one or more arguments is FALSE.
Syntax
AND(logical1,logical2,…)
Logical1, logical2, … are 1 to 30 conditions you want to test that can be either TRUE or FALSE.
Remarks
- The arguments must evaluate to logical values such as TRUE or FALSE, or the arguments must be column references that contain logical values.
- If a column reference argument contains text, AND returns the #VALUE! error value; if it is empty, it returns FALSE.
- If the arguments contain no logical values, AND returns the #VALUE! error value.
Example 1
| Formula | Description (Result) |
|---|---|
| =AND(TRUE, TRUE) | All arguments are TRUE (Yes) |
| =AND(TRUE, FALSE) | One argument is FALSE (No) |
| =AND(2+2=4, 2+3=5) | All arguments evaluate to TRUE (Yes) |
Example 2
| Col1 | Col2 | Formula | Description (Result) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 104 | =AND(1<[Col1], [Col1]<100) | Because 50 is between 1 and 100 (Yes) |
| 50 | 104 | =IF(AND(1<[Col2], [Col2]<100), [Col2], “The value is out of range.”) | Displays the second number, if it is between 1 and 100, otherwise displays a message (The value is out of range.) |
| 50 | 104 | =IF(AND(1<[Col1], [Col1]<100), [Col1], “The value is out of range.”) | Displays the first number, if it is between 1 and 100, otherwise displays a message (50) |
OR function
Description
Returns TRUE if any argument is TRUE; returns FALSE if all arguments are FALSE.
Syntax
OR(logical1, [logical2], ...)
The OR function syntax has the following arguments (argument: A value that provides information to an action, an event, a method, a property, a function, or a procedure.):
- Logical1, logical2, … Logical1 is required, subsequent logical values are optional. 1 to 255 conditions you want to test that can be either TRUE or FALSE.
Remarks
- The arguments must evaluate to logical values such as TRUE or FALSE, or in arrays (array: Used to build single formulas that produce multiple results or that operate on a group of arguments that are arranged in rows and columns. An array range shares a common formula; an array constant is a group of constants used as an argument.) or references that contain logical values.
- If an array or reference argument contains text or empty cells, those values are ignored.
- If the specified range contains no logical values, OR returns the #VALUE! error value.
- You can use an OR array formula to see if a value occurs in an array. To enter an array formula, press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.
Common Date & Time Formulas
Get Week of the year =DATE(YEAR([Start Time]),MONTH([Start Time]),DAY([Start Time]))+0.5-WEEKDAY(DATE(YEAR([Start Time]),MONTH([Start Time]),DAY([Start Time])),2)+1
First day of the week for a given date: =[Start Date]-WEEKDAY([Start Date])+1
Last day of the week for a given date: =[End Date]+7-WEEKDAY([End Date])
First day of the month for a given date: =DATEVALUE(“1/”&MONTH([Start Date])&”/”&YEAR([Start Date]))
Last day of the month for a given year (does not handle Feb 29). Result is in date format:=DATEVALUE (CHOOSE(MONTH([End Date]),31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31) &”/” & MONTH([End Date])&”/”&YEAR([End Date])) Day Name of the week : e.g Monday, Mon =TEXT(WEEKDAY([Start Date]), “dddd”) =TEXT(WEEKDAY([Start Date]), “ddd”)
The name of the month for a given date – numbered for sorting – e.g. 01. January:=CHOOSE(MONTH([Date Created]),”01. January”, “02. February”, “03. March”, “04. April”, “05. May” , “06. June” , “07. July” , “08. August” , “09. September” , “10. October” , “11. November” , “12. December”)
Get Hours difference between two Date-Time : =IF(NOT(ISBLANK([End Time])),([End Time]-[Start Time])*24,0)
Date Difference in days – Hours – Min format : e.g 4days 5hours 10min : =YEAR(Today)-YEAR(Created)-IF(OR(MONTH(Today)<MONTH(Created),AND(MONTH(Today)=MONTH(Created), DAY(Today)<DAY(Created))),1,0)&” years, “&MONTH(Today)-MONTH(Created)+IF(AND(MONTH(Today) < =MONTH(Created),DAY(Today)<DAY(Created)),11,IF(AND(MONTH(Today)<MONTH(Created),DAY(Today) > =DAY(Created)),12,IF(AND(MONTH(Today)>MONTH(Created),DAY(Today)<DAY(Created)),-1)))&” months, “&Today-DATE(YEAR(Today),MONTH(Today)-IF(DAY(Today)<DAY(Created),1,0),DAY(Created))&” days”
Display SharePoint List Items Age: Create a SharePoint Calculated Column to Display a List Item as “X” Days Old
=YEAR(Today)-YEAR(Created)-IF(OR(MONTH(Today)<MONTH(Created),AND(MONTH(Today)=MONTH(Created),
DAY(Today)<DAY(Created))),1,0)&” years, “&MONTH(Today)-MONTH(Created)+IF(AND(MONTH(Today)
<=MONTH(Created),DAY(Today)<DAY(Created)),11,IF(AND(MONTH(Today)<MONTH(Created),DAY(Today)
>=DAY(Created)),12,IF(AND(MONTH(Today)>MONTH(Created),DAY(Today)<DAY(Created)),-1)))&” months,
“&Today-DATE(YEAR(Today),MONTH(Today)-IF(DAY(Today)<DAY(Created),1,0),DAY(Created))&” days”
Workdays Logic
Here’s a basic approach for Calculated Columns workdays logic: Working Days, Weekdays and Holidays in SharePoint Calculated Columns: http://blog.pentalogic.net/2008/11/working-days-weekdays-holidays-sharepoint-calculated-columns/
This shows how to combine an approach like that into Workflow logic: Limiting SharePoint Workflow Due Dates to Business Days: http://dlairman.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/limiting-sharepoint-workflow-due-dates-to-business-days/”>http://dlairman.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/limiting-sharepoint-workflow-due-dates-to-business-days/</a
Calculate work days excluding holidays in InfoPath 2010 using SharePoint 2010 and Excel Services: http://www.bizsupportonline.net/blog/2011/02/calculate-work-days-exclude-holidays-infopath-2010-sharepoint-2010-excel-services/
A blanket warning about anything to do with time & date programming and specific ranges like work days – always keep in mind that there’s: – Your Application logic’s concept of work week – SharePoint’s regional time and date, locale & work week settings – The Users desktop/profile settings such as region, timezone, personal variations such as different work days
DON’T FORGET – if you really can’t seem to come up with a formula that suits your needs based on what’s available in Excel/SharePoint formulas and functions, chances are you can achieve what you need with either:
Option A – (SharePoint 2013 only) Use JSLink to do your calculations in JavaScript on the client side.Here’s an article on the basics of implementing JSLink in SharePoint 2013. After that, you have the whole JavaScript language at your disposal to do calculations on the fly. There are plenty of JS/Jquery libraries such as this one that can handle the heavy lifting for you.
Option B – (SharePoint 2010/2007 only) Whip up some custom XSLT as described here and make your own custom columns that play by the rules you define there.
If you are still stumped after reading the information on this page, feel free to drop your question in the comments section at the bottom of the page and i’ll do my best, time-permitting, to help you out. This stuff takes stubbornness more than brains so chances are, if you stick it out, you can solve the scenario on your own and learn for next time. Please give it a go on your own first before posing a question here!
The hardest part of Calculated columns for most people is figuring out how to combine multiple functions and values together into one formula- the following article is great for explaining that part:
http://searchengineland.com/a-foolproof-approach-to-writing-complex-excel-formulas-146641
Make sure your formula is not capping out on one of the following limits:
Formula length: 1024 characters
Calculation length: 2048 characters
Filter length: 256 characters
You can avoid broken formulas by adhering to this basic Excel guidance (only SharePoint-related sections listed below):
- Start every function with an equal sign (=)
- Match all opening and closing parentheses
- Enter all required arguments
- Use unformatted numbers in formulas
- Use the right cell data type (in the SharePoint realm, this would mean, use the right List/Library Column type)
- Use the * symbol to multiply numbers
- Use quotation marks around text in formulas
- Don’t nest more than 64 functions in a formula
- Enclose sheet names in single quotation marks
- Avoid dividing numeric values by zero
- Avoid deleting data that’s referenced in formulas
- Watch formulas and their results
- Evaluate complex formulas one step at a time
- Use error checking to detect errors