Business Rules Example #249 – Using a Library Calculation formula to calculate the surface area of a sphere

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Overview

This example shows how a user can execute a formula from inside another formula using a function called ExecuteFormula and a formula type called Library Calculation.

This can be useful when a set of steps are used often – having a centralized custom function setup and available allows for ease of access and is simpler to update. 

In this example, we wish to calculate the surface area of a sphere using a centralized formula.

North52 BPA Solution

The North52 BPA solution works like this:

• A formula is setup that triggers whenever the custom field Sphere radius changes on an Account
  • This formula will execute another Library Calculation formula
    • The first formula will pass the new Sphere radius value as a parameter into the Library Calculation formula
    • The Library Calculation formula then calculates the surface area of the sphere and passes back the value to the initiating formula
      • Our example uses an xCache record to reference the value for Pi
  • The first formula uses this new value to update the Account record field Sphere surface area

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