Understanding ADF's Additional Built-in Groovy Functions

This section explains a number of additional helper functions you can use in your scripts. Some provide a simple example as well.

Use the Functions tab of the code editor palette to insert any of the built-in functions into your script.

Built-in Date Functions

Function	Description
today()	Returns: the current date, with no time Return Type: Date
now()	The current date and time Return Type: Timestamp
date( year , month , day )	Returns: a date, given the year, month, and day Return Type: Date Parameters: year - a positive integer month - a positive integer between 1 and 12 day - a positive integer between 1 and 31 Example: to return a date for February 8th, 1998, use date(1998,2,8)
dateTime( y , m , d , hr , min , sec )	Returns: a timestamp, given the year, month, day, hour, minute, and second Return Type: Timestamp Parameters: year - a positive integer month - a positive integer between 1 and 12 day - a positive integer between 1 and 31 hour - a positive integer between 0 and 23 minute - a positive integer between 0 and 59 second - a positive integer between 0 and 59 Example: to return a timestamp for February 8th, 1998, at 23:42:01, use dateTime(1998,2,8,23,42,1)
year( date )	Returns: the year of a given date Return Type: Integer Parameters: date - date Example: if curDate represents April 19th, 1996, then year(curDate) returns 1996.
month( date )	Returns: the month of a given date Return Type: Integer Parameters: date - a date Example: if curDate represents April 12th, 1962, then month(curDate) returns 4.
day( date )	Returns: the day for a given date Return Type: Integer Parameters: date - a date Example: if curDate represents July 15th, 1968, then day(curDate) returns 15.

Built-in String Functions

Function	Description
contains( s1 , s2 )	Returns: true, if string s1 contains string s2, false otherwise Return Type: boolean Parameters: s1 - a string to search in s2 - a string to search for Example: if twitterName holds the value @steve, then contains(twitterName,'@') returns true.
endsWith( s1 , s2 )	Returns: true, if string s1 ends with string s2, false otherwise Return Type: boolean Parameters: s1 - a string to search in s2 - a string to search for For example, if twitterName holds the value @steve, then endsWith(twitterName,'@') returns false.
find( s1 , s2 )	Returns: the integer position of the first character in string s1 where string s2 is found, or zero (0) if the string is not found Return Type: Integer Parameters: s1 - a string to search in s2 - a string to search for Example: if twitterName holds the value @steve, then find(twitterName,'@') returns 1 and find(twitterName,'ev') returns 4.
left( s , len )	Returns: the first len characters of the string s Return Type: String Parameters: s - a string len - an integer number of characters to return Example: if postcode holds the value 94549-5114, then left(postcode,5) returns 94549.
length( s )	Returns: the length of string s Return Type: Integer Parameters: s - a string Example: if name holds the value Julian Croissant, then len(name) returns 16.
lowerCase( s )	Returns: the string s with any uppercase letters converted to lowercase Return Type: String Parameters: s - a string Example: if sku holds the value 12345-10-WHT-XS, then lowerCase(sku) returns 12345-10-wht-xs.
right( s , len )	Returns: the last len characters of the string s Return Type: String Parameters: s - a string len - an integer number of characters to return Example: if sku holds the value 12345-10-WHT-XS, then right(sku,2) returns XS.
startsWith( s1 , s2 )	Returns: true, if string s1 starts with s2, false otherwise Return Type: boolean Parameters: s1 - a string to search in s2 - a string to search for Example: if twitterName holds the value @steve, then startsWith(twitterName,'@') returns true.
substringBefore( s1 , s2 )	Returns: the substring of s1 that precedes the first occurrence of s2, otherwise an empty string Return Type: String Parameters: s1 - a string to search in s2 - a string to search for Examples: if sku holds the value 12345-10-WHT-XS, then substringBefore(sku,'-') returns the value 12345, substringBefore(sku,'12345') returns an empty string, and substringBefore(sku,'16-BLK') also returns an empty string.
substringAfter( s1 , s2 )	Returns: the substring of s1 that follows the first occurrence of s2. otherwise an empty string Return Type: String Parameters: s1 - a string to search in s2 - a string to search for Example: if sku holds the value 12345-10-WHT-XS, then substringAfter(sku,'-') returns the value 10-WHT-XS, substringAfter(sku,'WHT-') returns the value XS, substringAfter(sku,'XS') returns an empty string, and substringAfter(sku,'BLK') also returns an empty string.
upperCase( s )	Returns: the string s with any lowercase letters converted to uppercase Return Type: String Parameters: s - a string Example: if sku holds the value 12345-10-Wht-xs, then upperCase(sku) returns 12345-10-WHT-XS.

Other Built-in Functions

Function	Description
newView( objectAPIName )	Returns: a ViewObject reserved for programmatic use, or null if not available. Return Type: ViewObject Parameters: objectAPIName - the object API name whose rows you want to find, create, update, or remove Example: newView('TroubleTicket') returns a new view object instance you can use to find, create, update, or delete TroubleTicket rows.
key( list )	Returns: a multi-valued key object for use in the ViewObject's findByKey() method. Return Type: Key Parameters: list - a list of values for a multi-field key Example: if a standard object has a two-field key, use key([101,'SAMBA'])
key( val )	Returns: a key object for use in the ViewObject's findByKey() method. Return Type: Key Parameters: val - a value to use as the key field Example: if a standard object has a single-field key, as all custom objects do, use key(123456789)
nvl( o1 , o2 )	Returns: the object o1 if it is not null, otherwise the object o2. Return Type: Object Parameters: o1 - a value to use if not null o2 - a value to use instead if o1 is null Example: to calculate the sum of Salary and Commission fields that might be null, use nvl(Salary,0) + nvl(Commission,0)
encodeToBase64( s )	Returns: the base64 encoding of s. Return Type: String Parameters: s - string to encode
decodeBase64( s )	Returns: the base64 decoding of s. Return Type: String Parameters: s - string to decode
decodeBase64ToByteArray( s )	Returns: byte array decoding of s. Return Type: byte[] Parameters: s - string to decode
encodeByteArrayToBase64( b )	Returns: base64 encoding of b. Return Type: String Parameters: b - byte[] to encode