Using Advanced Expression Piping within your forms you can create mathematical formulas in order to calculate a value. A common formula used is to determine the Average value from multiple fields. This article will demonstrate how to configure an AVG expression using AEP within a form.
The AVG function allows the expression to calculate the average value within a given list. While not as commonly used as the SUM function, this function provides a quick way of getting the average from a list of different variables within a form or from a column within a table.
The setup and formatting of the AVG expression is imperative in preventing an error message from appearing on your form where the result of your expression would normally appear. The first line of the AVG expression should be set up as follows:
| {{ AVG(variable1,variable2) }} |
This setup for the Average will work using the single operator (,) for a list of fields you wish to find the average for together. An example of using this setup would be when you are looking to find the average of a list of items within a table or to find the average of the a list of total scores.
| AVG of Select Cells | {{ AVG(q1[0],q1[2],[q1[3]) }} | Based on Grid Indexing, this will give you the average of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th cells. |
| AVG of a Column | {{ AVG(q1[:0]) }} | Based on Grid Indexing, this will find the average of column 1. |
| AVG of a Row | {{ AVG(q2[1:]) }} | Based on Grid Indexing, this will find the average of row 2. |
| AVG of a Range | {{ AVG(q1[0:4]) }} | Based on Grid Indexing, this will give you the average of the first 4 cells. |
| AVG of the Reviewer's Scores | {{ AVG(q1.score,q2.score,q3.score) }} | The Average score of the 3 questions will be calculated. |
While you can use the Average function to find averages throughout a form task, it would not be possible to pull an average of a list of averages within the the same expression.
For example: {{ AVG(AVG(q1[:0]),AVG(q2[:0])) }} is not a valid expression.
Calculate an average of averages can still be done using AEP. To do so would require the use of in form piping of the calculated average into a new average expression on a following page.