#happy2022workday day-030
Happy 2022 day-030! Today’s update…
With only one more day in January 2022 we are returning focus to the list of calculated fields functions [see RED “1”]
In many of the past 29 days, we have discussed a few of the date functions, some arithmetic on numbers, the binary world of boolean True|False values (either you get it or you don’t), and even several of the functions on Related Business Objects (RBOs) such as grabbing one object from a list, or getting an average of values from a list.
We haven’t yet focused on what I sometimes start with — text functions such as SuBstring Text (SBT) and CoNcatenate Text (CNT)
The reason I often start off with the very first use case of getting somebody’s initials, is because most everybody understands how my initials would be DE, Logan McNeil’s initials would be LM, etc.
What could be an easier first example? Well, don’t get me started with optional middle names and other potential complexities such as workers who have only a first name (not kidding!)
The problem with showing substring first is that SBT could be a bit complex. A large percentage of readers do not know what a “delimiter” is. What I mean by that is many people I ask if they “know what a ‘delimiter’ is” typically hesitate or simply don’t know. After I explain it’s the comma in a common example of a last-name-comma-first-name field, it’s clear that the comma could be a “delimiter”. And, by using the delimiter you could extract out either the first name or the last name by using “before delimiter” or “after delimiter.”
In #Workday, if you want the first name from a Last-name-comma-first-name value, use the “After a Delimiter” option in the “Substring Type” list [RED “2”]
Another good example is the get the text (the value) in between parens. As shown in the pic on the Substring Type, use “Start Delimiter” of ‘(‘ and “End Delimiter” of ‘)’ [“3”] (how you create or find the values of ‘(‘ and ‘)’ is another story!)
Good News: we are almost done with this somewhat complex SBT function. Consider ignoring the Delimiter examples and simply focus on grabbing the first character from a text field (the “initial”) and then use CNT to combine (CoNcatenate Text) the first and last initials to get DE, LM, etc. [4]
As another example, let’s combine the first name first initial with the last name to create something we can call a “username”, such as “depstein” or “lmcneil”. Further, let’s do this in Excel so we can focus on the functions instead of the specific screens you might see in Workday.
On the right of the pic shows in Excel [RED “5”] column A is fname, B is lname, and we create a column C for “username”. I introduced the CFTrainer during the Workday Rising conference in Chicago over 4 years ago. It’s a long-ish video in today’s world for busy WFH fans, but for those who are reviewing some the 29 previous #happy2022workday posts in prep for Wednesday’s “2/2 CF Share-a-thon” grab some popcorn 🙂
Enjoy,
David, The Sharing Guy