WithName

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WithName

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Formula: WithName()

Category: Relational

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WithName()

Names a value to be used inside of an expression

It’s kind of like saying...

Hey Coda, I’m going to give you a long formula. I’ll probably want to use it later, so can you remember that formula by a sweet little nickname I give it?

WithName() uses three parameters:

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Value

WithName(Value, Name, Expression)

The value you want to rename (usually a short forumula).

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Name

WithName(Value, Name, Expression)

The name you want to give the value (i.e., the "sweet nickname".

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Expression

WithName(Value, Name, Expression)

The primary formula--you use the renamed value in here.

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What Exactly Is This Formula?

WithName() is like the bit.ly of Coda. The mnemonic device of Coda.

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Bit.ly

Takes long and complex URLs and shortens them

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Mnemonic Devices

Takes long and complex phrases and creates a way to memorize them easily

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withName()

Takes long and complex formulas and allows you to reference them easily

How Does it Work?

Here’s a quick example. Let’s say that I want to draft a sentence that tells me how many people in the

People Database⁠

have a name that starts with “A” and the average age of those people. WithName() allows me to do that easily.

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There are 1 people whose name starts with 'A' and the average age of those individuals is 11.

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And here’s the formula I wrote to draft that sentence

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Here’s how that formula breaks down

(1) The “Value”:

People Database.Filter(name.StartsWith(”A”)

(2) The sweet little nickname

aPeople

(3) The formula

Format("There are. . . ",aPeople.count(), aPeople.Age.Average())

Let’s Get Deeper

WithName() does require extra keystrokes and admittedly does have a small learning curve. So when and where should you use it to actually provide value to your workflows or docs?

First off—if you are writing a longer formula that utilizes filter() within a formulaMap() you will need to use withName() to access the currentValue (see

Filter⁠

lesson for more info on current value) within the ForEach() loop.

Example

Let’s say you wanted to write a canvas-based formula to draft a summary list of the amount of people that match a certain age and let their names be instantly clickable in order to pull up their information.

You will need to use withName() to do that.

Here’s the formula (Right click to see how its written)

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There are 2 people that match the age of 20 ⁠@Craig Kidd ⁠ ⁠ ⁠@Mr. Brian Montoya ⁠ ⁠ There are no people that match the age of 21 There are 3 people that match the age of 22 ⁠@Bryan Johnson ⁠ ⁠ ⁠@Jackson Fron ⁠ ⁠ ⁠@Angie Collier ⁠ ⁠ There are 3 people that match the age of 23 ⁠@Megan Smith ⁠ ⁠ ⁠@Daniel Ayers ⁠ ⁠ ⁠@Coda Man ⁠ ⁠ There are 3 people that match the age of 24 ⁠@Ronnie Gross ⁠ ⁠ ⁠@Thomas Ward ⁠ ⁠ ⁠@Scott Weir ⁠ ⁠ There is 1 people that match the age of 25 ⁠@Elizabeth Nguyen ⁠ ⁠ There is 1 people that match the age of 26 ⁠@Angela Hill ⁠ ⁠ There are no people that match the age of 27 There are no people that match the age of 28 There is 1 people that match the age of 29 ⁠@Matthew Smith ⁠ ⁠

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Name

Age

Craig Kidd

Elizabeth Nguyen

Ronnie Gross

Bryan Johnson

Angela Hill

Matthew Smith

Thomas Ward

Megan Smith

Mr. Brian Montoya

Daniel Ayers

Scott Weir

Coda Man

Jackson Fron

Angie Collier

There are no rows in this table

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Practice: Use WithName() in a simple formula

Done

Create a “Learn about a tree” activity

Done

Challenge: Create a summary of salary information for a dashboard

Done

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Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.