MDM Expressions 

MDM expressions are Excel-like formulas that are evaluated by MDM and return a distinct value for each record.

Expressions can reference fields, attributes, and qualifiers; access lookup values, lookup records, and nested lookup records; navigate hierarchy, parent/child, and sibling relationships to access related records; reference the original data values of a checked out record; perform arithmetic, string, and logical operations; call built-in functions; and even reference other previously defined expressions.

Using MDM expressions, you can define complex formulas based on the data values of the record, and then evaluate those formulas against a group of one or more records, all without using a query language.

You can also define category-specific expressions as branches of a single expression, and MDM automatically executes the applicable expression based on the value of the category for each record.

Expressions appear within MDM in a variety of contexts, and in each case, their results are interpreted accordingly, as follows:

●      Validations

Validation expressions are defined and executed in the MDM Client; the expression result is the Boolean success or failure of the validation for each record.

●      Assignments

Assignment expressions are defined and executed in the MDM Client; the expression result is assigned to the value of the specified user-editable field for each record.

●      Calculated fields

Calculation expressions are defined in the MDM Console; the expression result is the read-only calculated field value based on other fields or attributes for each record.

Calculated fields are described in the MDM Console Reference Guide.

For each record, MDM evaluates the expression based on the data values of the referenced fields, attributes, and qualifiers of that record, and the data values of any referenced records related to that record.

An expression treats a referenced qualifier as a multi-valued field across the set of qualified links (although a calculated qualifier is evaluated individually for each qualified link).

An expression treats related records as a multi-value across the set of related records.