With hundreds of formulas to offer, the Coda formula language is the key to unlocking endless possibilities as you build out your docs. From calculations to automations, it’s part of the secret sauce that makes Coda super powerful.

This article will help you develop a strong foundation and understanding of the Coda formula language and get you up and running with a few key formulas. Get ready to level up your productivity and make magic happen with Coda’s Formula language! 🚀

The Coda formula language is similar to spoken or written words; it's a language. This means that although there are rules to improve efficiency and comprehension, there is no one specific way to accomplish anything.

For example, a greeting could look like:

All different greetings, but they accomplish the same thing. If you think of all the ways to greet someone, some of them are longer, and some are more efficient, and some might make more sense given the context of where you are and who you’re interacting with.

So when working with the Coda formula language, you’ll have your way of writing it, which might differ from the way other Makers write their formulas, and that’s okay!

The other thing to remember is that you don’t need to know every word in the dictionary in order to be a proficient speaker.

The same goes for the Coda formula language. You don’t need to know every formula to be successful, but we do have our formula dictionary should you ever need it 🧠

Coda formulas are made up of two major components: Objects and Functions.

To stay with our language analogy, you can think of Objects as Nouns, and Functions as Verbs.

If you’ve ever used Excel or Google Sheets, you may be used to using coordinates to pinpoint a cell. In Coda, all objects have names. No coordinates needed! Simply type the name of the object you want to reference.

Objects hold the data we want to work with:

Functions are things that we want to do to the given object:

Chips are your Nouns, aka, Objects. When you click on a chip, you can learn more about that specific Object:

When we click on Fruit chip in this formula example above, we can see that this is an option in the Fruit or Vegetable column in the Produce table.

Formula chips of the same color mean that those objects are located in the same table:

Take a look at the example above. Based on the color of the chips, you can see that Produce and Fruit or Vegetable are part of the same table, and thisRow.Category is part of the Categories table.

Take a look at the reference below. These icons will be at the far-right of each chip in your formulas, and will note what type of data you are working with.

The icon will also tell you whether you are referencing a singular value vs a list of values, or an array of values — a list or array is more than one value. Notice the “stacked” icons for lists:

The Coda formula language is a little bit Excel, a little bit JavaScript. What we mean by that is that you can choose to use the wrapping method, or the chaining method while writing your formulas.
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In Excel’s formula language, you use a lot of parentheses:

This is called wrapping. This syntax is totally valid in the Coda formula language, but as your formulas become longer and more complex, this method can become a bit difficult to read as the number of parentheses increases.

In Coda, you can also get the same answer this way:

This is called chaining. The chaining method allows you to write your formulas in a more sentence structured way, similar to JavaScript syntax.

Either way works! It all comes down to personal preference and what feels best to you!

Things inside of parentheses can be viewed as one statement, or one sentence. Coda is going to look at that one statement and evaluate it as a whole.

In lengthy formulas, parentheses will help note where one sentence ends and the next begins. You can click on a parenthesis to see it’s highlighted pair. This will show you where your sentence begins and ends.

Additionally, just like in math problems, you'll use parentheses to separate multiple AND and OR functions so that all of your calculations happen in the right order. Coda will calculate anything inside of a parentheses first:

In the example above, we will execute 2*2 and 4+4 before doing the division.

In the same way, use parentheses to specify how multiple AND or OR functions should be grouped.

By default, the formula applies the logic from left to right in the order that it appears. If you want to specify a specific order, just use parentheses 😉

With the help of the Dot Operator, you can using the chaining method to write formulas for better readability.

Chaining separates steps in your formula by using a dot operator which is just a fancy descriptor for a .

At its most basic level, chaining looks like this:

Coda’s formula builder is where you will write all your formulas, whether they are located in a table or directly on the canvas.

There are two main ways you’ll access the formula builder — either directly on the canvas or in a table column:

To open the formula builder on the canvas:

To open the formula builder in a specific table column:

Coda’s formula builder tries to make writing formulas as easy as possible for you. Here’s a few cool things within the formula builder that will help you in writing great formulas for your docs:

If you’re writing a formula and feel like you want a little more space to work, you can expand the formula builder to a modal view:

In the expanded view modal, you now have the option to auto-format your formula for clarity.

To do so, click auto-format in the top-right corner of the expanded formula builder modal:

There are five formulas in the Coda formula language you’ll use in doc after doc after doc. Let’s add these MVP formulas to your toolbox.