QuickBase API Cookbook v3 - Recipe #83
Use Ruby code in a 'formula' field
ruby formula
You want to use Ruby code to calculate field values rather than a regular QuickBase formula field.
require 'QuickBaseClient'

qbc = QuickBase::Client.new(ENV["quickbase_username"],ENV["quickbase_password"])
qbc.iterateRecords("bdcvpsxpy",qbc.getFieldNames("bdcvpsxpy")){|record|
  nameAndNumber = eval(record['ruby formula 1']) || "<name and number>"
  qbc.clearFieldValuePairList
  qbc.addFieldValuePair("name+number",nil,nil,nameAndNumber)
  qbc.editRecord("bdcvpsxpy", record['Record ID#'],qbc.fvlist)
}

This example works by treating the value of a text field as Ruby code, and setting the value of another field in each record by evaluating the Ruby code.  The Ruby code can access other fields in the same record, or from other records, or it can use data that is not in QuickBase at all.
Use default values and field-level permissions to turn regular text fields into a 'ruby formula' fields.
Also note how this example gets the QuickBase username and password from environment variables.
An interesting thing to explore with this idea is the possibility of having a different formula for every record.
applyRubyFormulas.rb
One-Click Ruby Installer for Windows Ruby wrapper for QuickBase HTTP API
Created on March 12, 2008 at 11:32 PM (PDT). Last updated by Quick Base on March 13, 2008 at 12:17 AM (PDT). Owned by Quick Base.
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When you bring additional fields into a conversion, Quickbase often finds inconsistencies. For example, say you're converting your Companies column into its own table. One company, Acme Corporation, has offices in New York, Dallas and Portland. So, when you add the City column to the conversion, Quickbase finds three different locations for Acme. A single value in the column you're converting can only match one value in any additional field. Quickbase needs you to clean up the extra cities before it can create your new table. To do so, you have one of two choices:

  • If you want to create three separate Acme records (Acme-New York, Acme-Dallas and Acme-Portland) click the Conform link at the top of the column.
  • If the dissimilar entries are mistakes (say Acme only has one office in New York and the other locations are data-entry errors) go back into your table and correct the inconsistencies—in this case, changing all locations to New York. Then try the conversion again.

Read more about converting a column into a table.

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