Data Type Representation in Functions

This topic explains how each data type is represented in functions. In other words, it describes the means employed by Primavera Portfolio Management for interpreting the data in order to manipulate it for the execution of the function.

  • Integer: Integers are represented as integers. In other words, Primavera Portfolio Management recognizes integers in the form they are entered into the function.
  • Float: Floats are represented as floats. In other words, Primavera Portfolio Management recognizes floats in the form they are entered into the function.
  • Date-Time: Dates are represented by the number of days since January 1, 1753. Primavera Portfolio Management functions count the days between an entered date and the baseline date in order to perform comparisons. Thus, if Start Date is a category with date data type, then getCell("Start Date").Value will be calculated as the number of days since January 1, 1753. If you compare getCell("End Date").Value - getCell("Start Date").Value, the difference in the number of days is returned.

    For example: If the Start Date is June 1, 2000 and the End Date is June 4, 2000, the result is 3. If the Start Date is June 4, 2000 and the End Date is June 1, 2000, the result is -3.

  • Values List: Value-list values are represented by their weight, as entered in the Values List wizard. They appear when using the getCell("<categoryname>").Value method, or when using the value list notation getValueList("<valuelistname>","<value>"). The weight can be integer or float.

Example

If Risk is a value list category with High, Medium and Low values, then the following horizontal formula is valid:

("Risk" == getValueList("Risk","High"))?1:0

?: is the JavaScript conditional operator. The formula returns 1 if the item's Risk is High; otherwise it returns 0.

  • Text: Text data is represented as a string of characters. Data is read from Text cells using the getCell("<category>").DisplayValue syntax.
  • User: This data type is not used in functions, but can be used by the Imported Data source.