The formula fields enable you to define fields that can populate dynamically calculated data based on the values returned from other standard or custom fields. For instance, an insurance company may need to determine, if the provided date of birth (by policy holders), confirms their eligibility to own a policy based on their present age.

A formula field is made up of three elements: Functions, Arguments and Operators.

A Function expresses the dependence between two quantities, one of which is input and the other which is output. In other words, function performs a specific operation on values that you specify and generates a new value. To compose a function, you need to type the function name, followed by a set of parentheses, which contains information to perform the function. The values within the parenthesis are called arguments.

Examples: Abs(); Ceil(); Timepart()

An Argument is a piece of information within a function that commands the values to act or produce. Arguments appear within the parentheses and are separated by comma (argument 1, argument 2, etc.). The types of argument(s) in a function can be either texts, numbers, field references or even another function.

Examples: Abs(-27.05); Max(12,6,10)

An Operator is a special symbol such as "+" or "%", that acts upon the arguments (literals, numbers, fields references) in the formula and returns a new value.

Examples: Abs(+27.50); (32*25)