Knowledge Base

Adds together strings to create a new string.

|CONCAT("Rob","Bert")| returns RobBert

Can be any number of strings |CONCAT("rob","ert"," is ", " ","working"," ","today")|  returns "robert is working today"

Use with other nested string functions too |CONCAT("Rob",RIGHT("Bert",3))| returns Robert

Returns a new string for the length of characters starting from the left LEFT(string,length)

|LEFT("Robert",3)| returns "Rob"

 Forces strings to lowercase.

|LOWERCASE("HElen")| = "helen"

 Returns part of a string MID(string, start, length) Example MID("Robert",3,4) returns "bert" All string functions cane be nested.

|UPPERCASE(MID("Robert",3,4))|                     returns "BERT"

Replaces occurrences of a string within a string with another string :)

Format is REPLACE(string,what,by)

|REPLACE("i like to eat apples","a","@")| returns "i like to e@t @pples"

Returns a string of length characters starting from the right

Format is RIGHT(string, length)

|RIGHT("Mary had a little lamb",4)| returns "lamb"

Returns the number of times a substring is found within a string.

|STRCOUNT("bird","a little bird sat on my window")| = 1

|STRCOUNT("a","it was a cold night and a bird pecked at an apple")| = 2

 Forces string to all uppercase.

|UPPERCASE("hello")| = "HELLO"

ABS returns the absolute value (ie. removes the negative sign!)

ABS(-1) = ABS(1)

Returns the average in a list of numbers.

e.g AVG(56,27, audience.sender.my_score)

|AVG(partition.custom_data["a"], partition.variables[CONCAT("a.",audience.sender.hash,".my_score")])|

To find an average of an array:

AVG(partition.scores)

Used to make numbers look attractive - usually to reduce the number of digits after the decimal point. 

Example |FORMAT(3.1276565,"###.##")|  gives 3.13

Forces value to an integer.

for example INT(12.45) = 12

Useful for converting a boolean to a value such as INT(5>2) = 1

MAX() returns largest number.

MAX(5, 4, 1, 12, 56,72) returns 72

MIN() returns the smallest number.

MIN(5, 4, 1, 12, 56,72) returns 1

MOD stands for modulo.

The function returns the remained after a division. The format is MOD(number to be divided, the dividing number).

This is most easily shown with an example such as breaking out hours, mins and secs from a duration:

Hours = |audience.sender.duration|/3600 Minutes = MOD(|audience.sender.duration|/60,60) Seconds = MOD(|audience.sender.duration|,60)

Returns the sum of all values e.g SUM(56,27, audience.sender.my_score)

|SUM(partition.custom_data["a"], partition.variables[CONCAT("a.",audience.sender.hash,".my_score")])|

Formats dates and times. Please see the DATETIME() article for the full specification

|DATETIME(NOW(),'MMMM d')| returns the current date in the format April 20

You can add and subtract time from NOW() to calculate dates in the past on in the future. For example

|DATETIME(NOW()-'02:00:00:00','dddd')| will subtract two days from today's date and print the day of the week.  For example

"Hey, I know it was 2 days ago you looked into that issue because it was a |DATETIME(NOW()-'02:00:00:00','dddd')| "

Creates a future date based on which day of the week and how many weeks from now. Use with DATETIME formatting for most practical result.

Example  

Imagine you need a persona to send an email warning about a protest on a Wednesday four weeks from the time of the exercise. The content might look like this: 

"Hi, I'm writing to warn you of a march affecting access to your offices on |DATETIME(NEXTWEEKDAY(NOW(),3,4), 'ddd D MMM')|. I hope 4 week's notice is enough for you to organise remote working"