GREL Functions
GREL Functions are written in camelCase followed by parentheses containing a coma separated list of the function’s arguments (representing the inputs or options). They can be used in two forms:
- Parentheses:
functionName(argument0, argument1, argument2, etc)– as given in the documentation. - Dot notation:
argument0.functionName(argument1, argument2, etc)– commonly used in practice.
The arguments in a function could be a variable, a string (wrapped in quotes "example" or 'example'), a regex (wrapped in forward slash /regex/), another function, or nothing at all.
Multiple functions can be nested in the arguments or strung together with dot notation to carry out complex operations.
Readability: Generally, dot notation can make reading a series of functions applied in sequence easier. White space is ignored in expressions, so use space to make your functions easier to read.
Examples
These examples demonstrate writing functions with parentheses vs. dot notation.
Count the number of characters in the cell:
- Parentheses:
length(value) - Dot notation:
value.length()
Starting with the cell’s value, remove any white space on beginning or end, then count the number of characters:
- Parentheses:
length(trim(value)) - Dot notation:
value.trim().length()
Starting with the cell’s value, replace “example” with “test”, then remove all punctuation marks:
- Parentheses:
replace(replace(value,'example','test'),/\p{Punct}/,' ') - Dot notation:
value.replace('example','test').replace(/\p{Punct}/,' ')