Alias

Cell Alias has two functions:

1 - it is an alias and can be used in formulas.

If we set alias to cell A1 from section1 to PRICE, then formula =section1.A1 + 1 is equal to formula =PRICE + 1.

2 - aliased cells in app documents can be queried by lookup formula.

Consider app definition LEAVE_REQUEST with four cells aliased to user, from, to and accepted

This app documents created Data definition with columns equals to aliased cells, this Data object behaves just like any other data object, it can be queried, bound to sections, analyzed, presented in diagrams, the only difference is that you cannot use Save to database workflow action step to modify those values.

Example of lookup formula:

=LOOKUP(LEAVE_REQUEST, user=’john smith’ and from > date(2016,1,1))

 

App LEAVE_REQUEST with 4 cells aliased

 

Data tab with app LEAVE_REQUEST and aliased cells as columns

After entering an alias, an additional option "Show on grid view" appears. It allows you to view data from a cell with a given alias in the Table tab of this application.

When exporting data to an .xlsx file from the table tab, only those aliases for which the "Show on grid view" option is selected will be exported.

Referencing aliases

Aliases can be referenced in two ways. Both notations return the same value.

1) Short form

=ALIAS

2) Full form

=APPNAME.ALIAS

Remark: Alias names must be at least 4 characters long.