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Formula Builder

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SLOPE_ModelDevlopement.png

mceclip0.pngThe Formula Builder is a powerful visual tool for building and editing the variable calculations for the model.

  1. Variable Properties – This section provides an editor for properties of the current variable. See below for more details about properties that can be edited and what each does.
  2. Validation Summary – Any validation messages will be displayed in this area. This provides useful information about potential problems with the formula that has been written. If there are no problems, then this box will not be visible.
  3. View Relationships – The View Relationships screen shows upstream and downstream variable dependencies relative to the selected variable. 
  4. Actions – Drop down menu that allows one of two options
    • Copy this variable
    • Convert to a model point field
  5. Formula Editor– This is the main formula builder pane. As the variable formula is built out and pieces are added, this will grow and reformat the formula to show the full formula in an easy to read format.
  6. Magnify – Increases or decreases objects displayed in Formula Editor
  7. Undo/Redo – As the formula is being edited and changed, these buttons allow the last edit step to be undone and then redone as needed.
  8. Operator Selector – The Operator Selector will bring up the Operator Menu where you can select the appropriate operator to use between two operands within a formula. See below for details regarding the operators within the Operator Menu.
  9. Formula Component Selector – The Formula Component Selector will bring up the Component Menu where you can select from all of the Formula Types available.
  10. Save/Cancel – Once edits have been made to a formula or variable properties, click the Save button to save changes, or Cancel to leave without saving changes.
  

 

Variable Properties

Name The name of the variable. This is the name that will be displayed in the Formula Builder for any references to this variable.
Data Type The type of data the variable is expected to return from its formula. The system will perform validations to ensure that the formula produces a result of this type.
Display Precision The display precision affects how results of this variable get displayed in reports. It has no impact on the precision of calculations performed during run-time, however.
Aggregation  This option will only be available on Product Variables. This sets if and how the results of this variable result should be aggregated across a whole product. See below for more details on aggregation.
Time Indexed? Indicates if this is a time-indexed variable. Check this box if the formula should be run at each time index of the projection. If it only needs to be calculated once for the entire run, then leave this box unchecked. Note: Non-time-indexed variables cannot use the results of time-indexed variables in their formula.
Scales on Purchase or Sale  This option will only be available on Asset type Product Variables. This controls the behavior for how the variable will be treated upon the sale of an asset.

 

Aggregation (Product Variables Only)

The aggregation property controls whether or not the results of a variable are to be aggregated across all model points within a product.
None The results will not be aggregated. The results of this variable will not be available at other calculation levels.
Sum The result of the calculation for all model points will be summed across the product.
Average The average of the calculation result will be calculated for the product by summing across all model point results and then dividing by the total number of in-force model points.
First Value Only a single value from the first model point will be saved as the total Product result. This can be useful if there is a value that is identical across all model points within a product. However, it is important to note that the first value will be the first value that is calculated at runtime, which may or may not be the first model point in numerical order due to the nature of parallel processing in Slope.
 
In order to read Product results into a formula at a higher model level (Portfolio or Company levels), the aggregation property must be set to a value other than None.
 

Formula Editor

The Formula Component Selector is used as the starting point for building all formulas. Clicking on this icon will open the Component Menu where you can select from all the Formula Types available.  Clicking on any icon will append the new formula component to the formula at the location of the Formula Component Selector.

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Operator Selector

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The Operator Selector is used to choose an Operator within a formula involving two operands. When a new Component is added via the Formula Component Selector, a new Component will be added to the right of the existing Components within the formula and an Operator Selector is added to the left of the new Component.  When a new Component is added, the Operator defaults to addition ("+") and can be edited. If you click and drag a Component within the formula editor or you insert a new Component between two existing Components, the Operator will be set to blank and an Operator will need to be selected. 

Clicking on the Operator Menu within the Operator Selector will bring up the following Operator icons: 

mceclip1.png Addition
mceclip2.png Subtraction
mceclip3.png Multiplication
mceclip4.png Division
mceclip5.png Exponent
mceclip7.png Modulus (Remainder)
mceclip9.png Formula insertion.  A Component will be added between two existing Components populated with a Formula Component Selector. A blank Operator Selector will be added to the right of the Component. Note that if the new blank Component or the new blank Operator is not populated, an error message will appear and the formula cannot be saved.

 

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