Lookup & Reference Calculated Fields

Lookup and reference fields will allow you to work with your current spreadsheet and dashboard, returning text references to cells, rows and dashboard variables.

note

All samples included in the table below were created with the HR Dataset 2016 spreadsheet.

Lookup and Reference functions

Function Name	Syntax and Sample
previous: previous allows you to get a result with the value of the field you choose as your expression.	Syntax: previous({expression},{first value}) Sample: previous([Wage],1)
row: row returns the number of the current row for every row in your data source.	Syntax: row() Sample: row()

Previous

The previous calculated field allows you to get a result with the value of the field you choose as your expression. There are two arguments for you to configure:

• expression: one of the fields in your data source.

• first value: the value for your first row, which will be empty by default.

Sample

The following is an extract of the HR Dataset 2016 "Employees" sheet.

EMPLOYEEID	FULLNAME	DEPARTMENT	OFFICE	WAGE
1.00	Joan Baez	Development	Montevideo, Uruguay	36542.00
2.00	Zurbuch Thompson	Development	Cranbury, New Jersey, USA	76865.00
3.00	Zimmermann Miller	Development	Cranbury, New Jersey, USA	73768.00
4.00	Zurcher Reid	Development	Sofia, Bulgaria	36018.00

Let's add the following calculated field:

previous([Wage],1)

The results of the calculated field will be:

EMPLOYEEID	FULLNAME	DEPARTMENT	OFFICE	WAGE	previous Field
1.00	Joan Baez	Development	Montevideo, Uruguay	36542.00	1.00
2.00	Zurbuch Thompson	Development	Cranbury, New Jersey, USA	76865.00	36542.00
3.00	Zimmermann Miller	Development	Cranbury, New Jersey, USA	73768.00	76865.00
4.00	Zurcher Reid	Development	Sofia, Bulgaria	36018.00	73768.00

As seen in the table, the second row returns the [WAGE] value for the second row, and fills the first cell of the column with 1, as set in your formula.