# Workflow Automation: PHP Calculation & Regex Examples

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Here are some real-life examples of **PHP Calculations** used by other **Workflow Automation** members. Since most *field* types in **Podio** handle the data differently, we have separated our calculations by field type. Scroll to the end for **Parsing** examples. If you would like to add to this list to help other users, please contact our Support team.

*(Note:* *Podio field tokens, as shown highlighted in blue, must be dropped into the calc field using the token selector.)*

![PHP Regex 1](https://www.progress.com/podio/documentation/assets/e42689a8e23d6f2de3fc3db1dcf46335/regex1.png)

For a list of **PHP Functions** available for use in **Workflow Automation**, see this **Article**

***

## AVAILABLE TOKENS AND CALCULATION EXAMPLES

### **Podio Item ID**

Returns the Podio Item ID
**When searching the App for a duplicate, check that the Referenced ID is found**

`(Ref)Podio Item ID != ""`

#### **Created (App) Podio Item ID:**

Returns the nine-digit Item number that can be used in the old format for a Podio link

**Create a URL link to the item created in the flow:**
`'https://ORGANIZATION.podio.com/APP-NAME/item'.Created (App) Podio ID`

#### **Actions Left per Hour:**

Returns the value of the actions left per hour at that current moment

**Check if there are more than 50 actions available in the hour:**

`Actions left this Hour> 50`

#### **Actions Left per Month:**

Returns the value of the actions left in the month at that current moment

**Check if there are more than 1000 actions available in the hour:**

`Actions left this Month> 1000`

#### **Current Date(Y-m-d):**

Returns the current date

**Format the*Current Date*from YYYY-MM-DD to be MM-DD-YYYY:**

`date("m-d-Y", strtotime(current-date))`

#### **Current Date & Time(Y-m-d H:i:s):**

Returns the current date and time

#### **Item Created Date & Time:**

Returns the date and time of when the Item was created, in the format above

**Check if the Current Date is greater than a specific date:**
`strtotime(Item Created Date & Time) > strtotime(2016-02-16)`

#### **Item Last Updated Date & Time:**

Returns the date and time of when the Item was last updated, in the format above

#### **Item Creator Name:**

Returns the name of the User who created the Item

**Check if the App created the Item:**

`Item Creator Name=="App-Name"`

#### **Revision Creator Name:**

Returns the name of the User who made the last Update to the Item

### Check if Reviser is a particular user

`Revision Creator Name== "John Doe"`

#### **Item Creator @mention:**

Use in a comment to @mention the Item Creator

### Use this token in a comment

`Item Creator @mention`

**Revision Creator @mention:**

Use in a comment to @mention the Revision Creator

### Use this token in a comment

`Revision Creator @mention`

#### **Podio App Item ID:**

Returns the Unique Item ID

#### **Podio App Item ID (Formatted):**

Returns the Unique Item ID as set up in thePodio App Settings

#### **Podio Item Email Address:**

Returns the Trigger Items email address for use in Podio'sEmail to Item.*This token is collected by the MAIN Account holder and therefore must be a member of the workspace.*

**To check if a token is empty or null, we recommend using empty() instead of comparing to an empty string or zero:**

empty(field-token)

**Create an email list from a Contact field Email and the the Podio Email Address:**

`Contact (Email). "," .Podio Item Email Address`

#### **All Comments:**

Provides a list of all comments and when they occurred

#### Copy All Comments to a Multi-line Text field retaining previous field value

`Field-Token. "\n" .All Comments. "\n"`

#### **Comment Count(#):**

This token gives a total count of all comments on the Podio Item

##### Use this token in text or calculations

`Comment Count (#)`

#### **Item All File(s) List:**

Returns a list of the files names located on the Podio Item. (*Not uploaded via third party providers*)

#### **Item Hosted File(s) HTTP Links:**

Returns a comma separated list of links to the files uploaded to the Podio Item via third part providers

#### **Workflow Automation Most Recent Error:**

Returns the error generated when the flow tried to perform actions

***

### BASIC FILTER CALCULATIONS

### **Determine if a Podio *Field* is empty:**

empty(field-token)

**Determine if a Podio *Field* is NOT empty:**

`!empty(field-token)!= ""`

Great for flows that **Trigger By Day or Date**

**Determine if it's an odd-numbered week when the flow triggers:**

`(date ("W")/2) != (intval(date("W")/2))`

**Determine if the triggered day of the month is equal to 1:**

`date("j") == "1"`

**Determine if the day of the week that the trigger happened is equal to Monday:**

`date("D") == "Mon"`

**Determine if the time of day the trigger happened is between 10:00AM and 6:00PM:**

`intval(date("H")) > 10 && intval(date("H")) < 18 && intval(date("N")) < 6date("H") > 10 && date("H") < 18 && date("N") < 6`

***

### PODIO CALCULATION FIELD

### **Format a *Calculation field* to remove HTML:**

`strip_tags( Calc-Field )`**OR remove HTML and an extra space:**`trim( strip_tags( Calc-Field )`

***

### CATEGORY FIELD

Multi-choice category fields return a comma-separated list.

**To unset a *Category field*:**

`NULL`

*or select **Unset** from the drop down menu*

**Count number of selected options within a *Category field*:**

`sizeof(explode( ",", Category-Field ))`

**Assigning multiple values to a *Category field*:**

`"option1,option2,option3"`

**Add commas between *Category Options* when using this field in a PDF or Email:**

`str_replace ( ",", ", ", Category-Field )`

**If *Category* is equal to A, add relationship but if not, do nothing:**

`( Category-Field == "A"? Relationship-Field : "")`

**Create an IF Statement using a *Category* field:** (if statement == true) ? (true) : (false)

`( Category-Field == A) ? (A) : (( Category-Field == B) ? (B) : (( Category-Field == C) ? (C) : (false)))`

**If *Category* is equal to A, add relationship A, if equal to B, add relationship B but if other, do nothing:**

`( Category-Field == "A"? Relationship-A-Field : ( Category-Field == "B"? Relationship-B-Field : ""))`

**Check if a *Multiple choice Category field* contains a value:**

`stristr( Category-Field ,"value")`

**Add a space between values from a *Multiple choice Category field*:**

`str_replace ( ",", ", ", Category-Field )`

**Add checkbox to each value from a *Multiple choice Category field*:**

!empty(Category-Field) ? "

" . str_replace ( ",", "

", Category-Field ) : ""

***

### CONTACT/MEMBER FIELD

### **Get only the First Name of a *Contact field*:**

`(strpos( Contact-Field , " ")) ? (substr( Contact-Field , 0, strpos( Contact-Field , " "))) : ( Contact-Field )`

**Get only the Last Name of a *Contact field*:**

`substr( trim( Contact-Name-Field ) , strpos(trim ( Contact-Name-Field), " ") +1)`

**Get the Whole Name of a *Contact field*:**

`(strpos( Contact-Field , "(email:")) ? (substr( Contact-Field , 0, strpos( Contact-Field , " (email:"))) : ( Contact-Field )`

**Get the email address from a *Contact field*:**

`substr(substr( Contact-Field , strpos( Contact-Field , "(email: ")+7 ), 0, strpos(substr( Contact-Field , strpos( Contact-Field , "(email: ")+7 ), ")" ))`

**Add the *Contact field "Assigned To" Workspace User* initials to beginning of a *Text field*:**

`substr( Contact-Field ,0,1) . substr( Contact-Field , strpos( Contact-Field , " ")+1,1) . " " . Text-Field`

**Get a Profile ID from the user drop down menu:**

*Right Click on the user drop down menu, select **Inspect** to view the source code, click on Value5\_ and select the Profile/Workspace ID*

![PHP Regex 2](https://www.progress.com/podio/documentation/assets/1eea88f8ceaecbb6505cfd05bd90c086/regex2.png)

![PHP Regex 3](https://www.progress.com/podio/documentation/assets/0f04e8b74d8fddc43bcfc3315f815c0b/regex3.png)

**Assign multiple *Contacts* using profile IDs separated by commas:**

`profile-id#1,profile-id#2`for example: "9834623,9834572"

***

### DATE FIELD

### **Get items with February in a *"Due Date" Date field*:**

`date("m", strtotime( Date(Start)-Field )) == "02"`

**Check if a *Date Field* is in the current week:**

`date("W") == date("W", strtotime( Date-Field ))`

**Format A *Date field* as YYYY-MM-DD and remove the time stamp:**

`( Date(End)-Field == "") ? (date("Y-m-d")) : (date("Y-m-d", strtotime( Date(End)-Field )))`

**Get time from a *Date field* in a 12 hour format (ex. 9:30am):**

`date("g:ia", strtotime( Date(Start)-Field ))`

**Get the number of days between 2 *Date fields* with 1 decimal point:**

`round(intval(strtotime( Date-Field-A ) - strtotime( Date-Field-B ))/(60 * 60 * 24), 1)`

**Calculate the difference between two *Date fields* using a "Custom Variable":**

`intval(strtotime( Custom Variable ) - strtotime( Date(Start)-Field ))/(60 * 60 * 24)`

**Add 10 business days to a *Date field* including the time stamp:**

`date("Y-m-d", strtotime( Date-Field . " +10 weekdays"))." 00:00:00"`

**Add a number of days value in a *Number field* to a *Date Field*:**

`date("Y-m-d", strtotime( Date-Field . " + " . Number-Field . "days"))`

**Add *Number field* days value to a *Date Field* even when blank:**

Note: Does not work with Start|End dates\*

`date("Y-m-d", strtotime( Date-Field ."+".(( Number-Field =="")?(0):( Number-Field )). "days"))`

#### For other Date formats, have a look at php.net

***

### DURATION FIELD

Returns the duration in number of seconds.

**Format a *Duration field* from seconds to exact hours and mins:**

`intval( Duration-Field /3600) ."h". intval(( Duration-Field - (intval( Duration-Field /3600) * 3600))/60) . "m"`

***

### EMAIL FIELD

Returns a comma separated list of emails.

**Remove Email Headers from Address:**

`preg_replace("/(other|work|home):/ism", "", email-field )`

***

### LINK FIELD

### **Format a URL link to display custom Text:**

`"<a href=" . Link-Field . ">Custom Text" . "</a>"`

**Add multiple URLs to the field:**

`Link-A-Field . "," . Link-B-Field`

***

### MONEY FIELD

Returns the value in the field, excluding zeros. Use the Money(currency) field to display the selected Currency.

**Add a $ to the beginning of a *Money field*:**

`" $ " . number_format ( Money-Field , 2 )`

**Add commas for thousands separator to *Money field* for use in Variables**

`number_format( Money-Field , 2, '.' , ',' )`

**Create an IF Statement using a *Money field*:**

`(floatval(Money-Field) > 0) ? (floatval(Money-Field)) : ("N/A")`

***

### NUMBER FIELD

### **Format a *Number field* to 2 decimal places:**

`number_format( Number-Field , 2)`

**Calculate the average of 3 different *Number fields*:**

`( Number-A-Field + Number-B-Field + Number-C-Field ) / 3`

**Calculate a percentage from 2 *Number fields* and round to 2 decimal places:**

round((intval(Number-A-Field) / intval(Number-B-Field)) \* 100, 2)

***

### PHONE FIELD

Returns a comma separated list of phone numbers.

**Easily Update using *"Value"* from the dropdown:**

`"Value" = "work:Field-Token,mobile:Field-Token"`

**Strip Phone *TYPE* from the number to be used in a Search:**

`current(array_slice( explode( ":", Phone-Field ), 1))`

**Send a SMS to the "Mobile" phone number in the list:**`preg_match_gf("/mobile:(^+)/", Phone-Field, 1)`

Or see Below for more parsing help with preg_match_gf.

***

### PROGRESS FIELD

Returns numeric value only

***

### RELATIONSHIP FIELD

**Add a new item to the field without losing the existing references:**

`Relationship-Field(Previous Value) . "," . Podio-Item-ID`

**Remove an Item from the *Relationship field*, retaining others:**

`str_replace ( Podio-Item-ID, "", Relationship-Field )`

**Count items in a *Relationship field*:**`( Relationship-Field == "") ? (0) : (substr_count( Relationship-Field ,",")+1)`

***

### TAGS

Returns a comma separated list of the Items tags
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

### **FILE PATH:**

Issue: File path escaping characters

Solution: You can solve this by wrapping the field token with single quotes. This returns the string wrapped in double quotes.

***

### TEXT FIELD

Podio adds HTML to multi-line text fields.

**Get the 3rd word from a *Text field*:**

`current(array_slice( explode( " ", Text-Field ), 2))`

**Get the last word from a *Text field*:**

`substr( Text-Field , strrpos( Text-Field , " " ))`

**Remove HTML from *Multi-Line Text field*:**

`strip_tags_gf( Text-Field )`

**Add the Current Date, Time and *Item Headline Text* to another *Text field*:**

`date("d/m/Y H:i") . " - " . Text-Field`

**Determine if a referenced *Text field* is equal to a current *Items'*:**

`( Text-Field == (Ref)Text-Field )`

**Determine if 2 (two) referenced *Text field* are equal to the current *Items'*:**

`( (Ref)Text-Field-A == Text-Field-A ) && ( (Ref)Text-Field-B == Text-Field-B )`

**Determine if *Text field* contains a particular word**

`strpos( Text-Field,'word') !== false`

**Join 2 *Text* fields together (separate by space):**

`Text-Field-A . " " . Text-Field-B`

**Join 2 *Text* fields together (separate by carriage return):**

`Text-Field-A . "\n" . Text-Field-B`

**Add the *Contact field "Assigned To" Workspace User* initials to beginning of a *Text field*:**

`substr( Contact-Field ,0,1) . substr( Contact-Field , strpos( Contact-Field , " ")+1,1) . " " . Text-Field`

***

### PARSING TEXT WITH *PREG_MATCH_GF()*

### Common character matches

\n = *New Line*

s = *Any White Space Character*

0-9] = *Numbers only*

0-9-] = *Numbers and dashes*

a-z] = *Lower case letters only*

A-Z] = *Upper case letters only*

a-zA-Z0-9] = *Alphanumeric matches*.

\= *All characters (wild card)*\\

**Parsing a phone number** (See Regex Example)**:**

This will strip out most formats of phone numbers (123-4567, 123.4567, 123 4567 etc)

`preg_match_gf("/CallerID:\n([0-9-\s.]+)/ism", strip_tags_gf(Text-Field), 1)`

**Parsing text between 2 words** (See Regex Example)**:**

This will parse out any text between words

`preg_match_gf("/Voice (.*) Message/ism", strip_tags_gf(Text-Field), 1)`

**Parsing text on a single line** (See Regex Example)**:**

Notice that the expression doesn't end in /ism, but only /i

`preg_match_gf("/Address\s:\s(.*)/i", strip_tags_gf(Text-Field), 1)`

**Parsing text between multiple lines** (See Regex Example)**:**
Using strip_tags_gf will turn paragraph tags into \n. This means you'll need to account for these new line breaks.

`preg_match_gf("/Date:\n(.*)\n\nNumber/ism", strip_tags_gf(Text-Field), 1)`