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Helper variables
| Helper variable | What is it? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| cohort | creates a Cohort Category | e.g. if your model runs over 12 months then your Cohort Category has 12 cohorts |
| daysinmonth | returns the total number of days in the calendar month | e.g. useful for calculating exact rates for per-day variablesdaily rate x daysinmonth |
| fiscalmonth | Fiscal month of the current time step. Integer between 1 and 12. | Must have Fiscal Year toggled on |
| fiscalyear | Fiscal year of the current time step. | Must have Fiscal Year toggled on |
| lastActualDate | Returns the time step index number of the time step of the Last actual date setting. | Must have the setting toggled on, otherwise none will be returned. Refer to our page on Last Actual Date¹ |
| month | indexes the calendar months from 1-12. Jan = 1, Feb = 2 etc. | Useful for seasonality, or any variables that occur on a particular month each year.if month = 4 then X else Y |
| blank | enables you to call "blank" variables in an if statement (see blank values here) | e.g. if an employee has no end date if End Date = blank then X else Y |
| numtimesteps | returns the total number of time steps in the model | e.g. useful for dividing a value equally over the length of the modelX / numtimesteps |
| quarter | indexes the quarter from 1-4 | Can be used for calculating variables that reoccur in a particular quarter, e.g.if quarter = 2 then X else Y |
| timestep or t ordate | returns the time step index number of the current time step | e.g. creating a different formula for the first time step of the modelif timestep = 0 then X else Y |
| today | returns the time step index number corresponding to the current date | e.g. if you want to set a particular value for today, or months beyond todayif timestep >= today then X else Y |
| year | indexes the calendar year | Useful for setting different values/formulas for different years, e.g. if year = 2022 then X else Y |
¹ Link to the page on Last Actuals - https://docs.causal.app/formulas/helper-variables/lastactualdate-variable