What’s in, what’s out, and what’s not official (that would be all of it)
I’ve done this before, and I’m doing this again: this blog is (like many if not all of my posts) information that is not in any way supported by Oracle. Do not go to Oracle whining about, “Cameron said this worked, but it doesn’t, so I hate you Oracle, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” as I am telling you that what you read below is unsupported, unofficial, incomplete, tied to the PBCS release of today, 22 March 2016, unknown to anyone at @oracle.com, etc. In other words, enjoy and maybe use the below and don’t have a conniption if it all goes sideways on you.
You Have Been Warned.
The warning is over, here’s the cool stuff
Could whining actually be an effective approach? Maybe.
“Where exactly does this ability to convert Excel formulae into a Smart Form begin and end? There a lots and lots and lots of formula functions in Excel – that’s one of its many strengths. Unfortunately, not all formula functions are supported and if there’s a list anywhere of what works and what doesn’t I was unable to find it.”
And then went on to whine:
“Bugger. So that’s at least one formula that isn’t supported via Smart Form. It sure would be nice to have that list of supported/unsupported.”
Yes, I am a whiner, to the detriment and annoyance of all who know me. And yes, whining seems to be a theme in this post. Perhaps I have done it recently and feel guilty about it? The Psychology of Cameron is a frightening thing.
Now to the cool stuff
How about that currently supported/but use at your own risk list of functions? Ask and ye shall receive.
Very, very, very nice and an awful lot of them to boot.
Function | Category |
ACCRINT | Financial |
ACCRINTM | Financial |
AMORDEGRC | Financial |
AMORLINC | Financial |
COUPDAYBS | Financial |
COUPDAYS | Financial |
COUPDAYSNC | Financial |
COUPNCD | Financial |
COUPNUM | Financial |
COUPPCD | Financial |
CUMIPMT | Financial |
CUMPRINC | Financial |
DB | Financial |
DDB | Financial |
DISC | Financial |
DOLLARDE | Financial |
DOLLARFR | Financial |
DURATION | Financial |
EFFECT | Financial |
FV | Financial |
FVSCHEDULE | Financial |
INTRATE | Financial |
IPMT | Financial |
IRR | Financial |
ISPMT | Financial |
MDURATION | Financial |
MIRR | Financial |
NOMINAL | Financial |
NPER | Financial |
NPV | Financial |
PMT | Financial |
PPMT | Financial |
PRICE | Financial |
PRICEDISC | Financial |
PRICEMAT | Financial |
PV | Financial |
RATE | Financial |
RECEIVED | Financial |
SLN | Financial |
SYD | Financial |
TBILLEQ | Financial |
TBILLPRICE | Financial |
TBILLYIELD | Financial |
XIRR | Financial |
XNPV | Financial |
YIELD | Financial |
YIELDDISC | Financial |
YIELDMAT | Financial |
ISERR | Information |
ISERROR | Information |
AND | Logical |
IF | Logical |
NOT | Logical |
OR | Logical |
ABS | Math and trigonometry |
MOD | Math and trigonometry |
PI | Math and trigonometry |
PRODUCT | Math and trigonometry |
ROUND | Math and trigonometry |
SUM | Math and trigonometry |
TRUNC | Math and trigonometry |
AVERAGE | Statistical |
AVERAGEA | Statistical |
COUNT | Statistical |
COUNTA | Statistical |
MAX | Statistical |
MIN | Statistical |
DATE | Date and time |
DAY | Date and time |
DAYS360 | Date and time |
EDATE | Date and time |
EOMONTH | Date and time |
HOUR | Date and time |
MINUTE | Date and time |
MONTH | Date and time |
NETWORKDAYS | Date and time |
NOW | Date and time |
SECOND | Date and time |
TIME | Date and time |
TODAY | Date and time |
WEEKDAY | Date and time |
WEEKNUM | Date and time |
WORKDAY | Date and time |
YEAR | Date and time |
YEARFRAC | Date and time |
FALSE | Logical |
TRUE | Logical |
ACOS | Math and trigonometry |
ACOSH | Math and trigonometry |
ASIN | Math and trigonometry |
ASINH | Math and trigonometry |
ATAN | Math and trigonometry |
ATAN2 | Math and trigonometry |
ATANH | Math and trigonometry |
CEILING | Math and trigonometry |
COMBIN | Math and trigonometry |
COS | Math and trigonometry |
COSH | Math and trigonometry |
DEGREES | Math and trigonometry |
EVEN | Math and trigonometry |
EXP | Math and trigonometry |
FACT | Math and trigonometry |
FACTDOUBLE | Math and trigonometry |
FLOOR | Math and trigonometry |
GCD | Math and trigonometry |
INT | Math and trigonometry |
LCM | Math and trigonometry |
LN | Math and trigonometry |
LOG | Math and trigonometry |
LOG10 | Math and trigonometry |
MROUND | Math and trigonometry |
MULTINOMIAL | Math and trigonometry |
ODD | Math and trigonometry |
POWER | Math and trigonometry |
QUOTIENT | Math and trigonometry |
RADIANS | Math and trigonometry |
RAND | Math and trigonometry |
RANDBETWEEN | Math and trigonometry |
ROUNDDOWN | Math and trigonometry |
ROUNDUP | Math and trigonometry |
SIGN | Math and trigonometry |
SIN | Math and trigonometry |
SINH | Math and trigonometry |
SQRT | Math and trigonometry |
SQRTPI | Math and trigonometry |
SUMSQ | Math and trigonometry |
TAN | Math and trigonometry |
TANH | Math and trigonometry |
Awesome is the only word that describes this function list. Note that it’s 128 functions long. Think of the Excel formulae you could write, think of the rich functionality in Excel, think of how many of these functions are not supported in BSO and then think about how many are not supported in MDX.
Conclusion and a whine
And that Gentle Reader, is why Smart Forms are 100 (128?) times better than traditional form formulae. Think about what you could write as one offs in a form. No more creating a member in the Account dimension that only gets used once and is deadwood otherwise. Instead, create the base members you need to perform the calculations and use the quite considerable power of Excel to do the heavy lifting. Remember that Smart Forms are easily made into ad hoc forms thus keeping the calculated member in play. Also remember that these functions are available in the Simplified Interface. Happy times indeed.
One last whine: when oh when oh when will we see this in on-premises? I love, love, love the idea of Oracle writing this stuff as it is top drawer functionality but thus far it is for PBCS only. Please Oracle, for the balance of customers who are not on The Cloud, bring this to on-premises so all of your customers can benefit from this functionality.
Be seeing you.