New built-in functions in Deluge

New built-in functions in Deluge

Hello everyone,

In today's post, let us begin with understanding functions, return values, arguments, and built-in functions. Towards the end of the post we will have a look at some of the newly supported built-in functions.

What are functions?
Functions do exactly what the name suggests. They are used to perform a specific 'function' or a task. Functions are used to combine multiple instructions to form a single piece of code meant to perform an action. And whenever you want to perform that action again, you do not have to write that code again. Instead you can simply 'call' or 'invoke' the function whenever required.
For example, a function can be written to find the average of three numbers. Once the function is created, it can be used as many times required, without having to rewrite the code all over again.

Arguments
The most important part in functions is arguments. Functions take in data in the form of arguments. For example, let's say you need a function that calculates the sum of two numbers. The two numbers could vary at different times. So in one place the numbers could be 10 and 5, in some other place it could be 20 and 25. Simply put, the function is meant to calculate the sum of two numbers which are going to be dynamic. To address this, we can specify two arguments to hold the numbers. Whenever the function is executed, the arguments are simply replaced with the numbers. The operation (in this example the operation 'sum') remains the same as defined in the script.

Argument is just programming jargon for input. Since functions aren't tied to any static or definite data, getting the outside data into your function's script requires arguments. Without arguments, Deluge wouldn't know which data your function should work with. 

Return values
Functions usually "take in" data, process it, and may or not "return" a result. The return is dependent on the script that you write within a function. For example, if you write a script to fetch a record from a specific service, then that function returns the value that has been fetched. If the script simply performs an action, for example if you write a script to add a record to a specific service and you do not want the status or response of the action in return, then that is a function without any return.

Note:
  • Configuring functions, arguments, and their return values depend on the Zoho service you are working on. 
  • We will come up with a central help page covering the working of custom functions in all Zoho services soon. Until then, you can refer to the product documents to learn about configuring custom functions.

Types of Function in Deluge 
In Deluge, functions can either be a user-defined function (custom function), where you decide what scripts are to be written in the function. Or, they could be built-in functions, where the scripts are written by us in the backend, and is readily available for you to use. 

Custom functions
For example, to calculate profit percentage you can create a custom function with the following code snippet. The inputs cost_price and selling_price of a product can be supplied to the function as arguments so the function will process them to calculate the profit percentage. Once the custom function is configured, you can use the same function to calculate profit percentages of different products by passing their cost and selling prices as arguments to this function.

  1. profit = selling_price - cost_price;
  2. percentage = (profit/cost_price)*100;

To trigger a custom function whenever an action is performed, associate it with an appropriate workflow. In Zoho Creator, you can also call the function within another function. 

Note: Configuring workflows to trigger custom functions depends on the Zoho service you are working on. 

Built-in functions
Another type of function that can be used in Deluge is built-in functions. It can be perceived as ready-to-use functions whose actions are pre-defined. That is, the script to perform the action, the required parameters, and the type of return value (if required) are already configured by us. This saves your time and effort as you can simply use them in your Deluge scripts by inputting arguments as expected by the function, without having to write the code.

For example, the leftPad built-in function inserts the specified number of white spaces to the beginning of the input text. This function expects you to supply two arguments specifying the input text and the number of white spaces to be inserted and it returns the padded text. The script required to pad the white spaces has already been written in the backend so you can directly use this function within your custom function. 

  1. lastName = leftpad("Watson",1);
  2. name = "John"+ lastName; // returns "John Watson"

In the above script, "Watson" and 1 are the arguments that are supplied to the leftpad functions and lastName is the variable that holds the return value - " Watson".

Deluge offers around 200 built-in functions so you can perform common actions, like computing the square root of a number, or checking if a given letter is present in a text. Each type of data has its set of built-in functions that allow you to manipulate it.You can refer to our help documents and flashcards to learn more. 

Let's now take a look at the built-in functions that we've recently supported. These functions are applicable for all Zoho services except Zoho Creator. We will eventually support them for Zoho Creator as well. 

Recent updates to built-in functions
​
Text functions: Functions that work on Text inputs
  • ltrim: Trims the leading white spaces from the given text
  • rtrim: Trims the trailing white spaces from the given text
Consider a concatenation function that will append two text values to return an ID. The following script uses the ltrim and rtrim functions to ensure no white spaces are inserted in between the texts.

  1. generated_ID = first_part.rtrim() + second_part.ltrim();

Here, first_part and second_part are the variables that hold the portions of the ID that need to be concentrated.
generated_ID is the variable that contains the concatenated text.

Number functions: Functions that work on Number and Decimal inputs
  • truncate: Limits the input decimal to the specified number of places to the left or right of the decimal point.
  • signum: Determines if the given number is negative, positive, or zero.
  • degrees: Converts the radians value into degrees
  • radians: Converts the degrees value into radians
  • sinh, asinh, cosh, acosh, tanh, and atanh: Perform the respective mathematical hyperbolic operations.
  • atan2: Finds the atan2 value of the specified point.
The following example converts the specified angle to radians and finds its hyperbolic sine value:

  1. angle_in_degrees = 90;
  2. angles_in_radians = angle_in_degrees.radians();
  3. sinh_value = angles_in_radians.sinh();

Here, the angle_in_degrees is the variable that holds the input angle in degrees.

We are working on offering around 70 more built-in functions in the near future. You can keep track of all the new releases, bug fixes, and improvements from our release notes. Do let us know your questions and suggestions in the comments.






      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • Sticky Posts

          • Function #41: Sync Associated Subforms!

            Welcome back everyone! The last custom function showed how to update a Contact with Product details from it's Related list in Deals. This week, let's look at a function that lets you update subform records in two modules simultaneously when one of them is updated. Business scenario Let's look at how subform helps in an education institution that has deployed Zoho CRM. National Public School, Austin (made up, of course!) has set up Zoho CRM and it follows the same relationship pattern of "Students",

          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • Ask the Experts 24: Analytics, data administration, and mobile experience with Zoho Desk

                                    Hello Everyone! Welcome back to the Ask the Experts(ATE) series! We were so focused on our Autumn 2025 release that we didn't host an ATE session last month. In this month's ATE, we'd like to expand our areas for discussion: we'd like to listen to your

                                  • Add Webhook Response Module to Zoho Flow

                                    Hi Zoho Flow Team, We’d like to request a Webhook Response capability for Zoho Flow that can return a dynamic, computed reply to the original webhook caller after / during the flow runs. What exists today Zoho Flow’s webhook trigger can send custom acknowledgements

                                  • Your bot just got smarter: AI-Powered routing that reads between the lines

                                    What if your bot could tell the difference? Between a visitor who just needs a quick answer, someone actively comparing options, and a frustrated customer one click away from leaving? Most bots can't. They deliver the same response to everyone, missing

                                  • Tips & tricks: Make SalesIQ automations work for you

                                    Every day, thousands of visitors land on your website. Some browse, some buy, and some leave without a word. But, wouldn’t it be great if you could automatically know who’s interested, engage them at the right moment, and never miss a lead, and all this

                                  • Zoho Analytics & SQL Server - Live connect

                                    Below are the steps I did Created a fresh database and table in my own virtual server Created a new data source connection with live connect I was able to select the tables and created the data source successfully I am getting the error when I try to

                                  • Mapping a new Ticket in Zoho Desk to an Account or Deal in Zoho CRM manually

                                    Is there any way for me to map an existing ticket in Zoho desk to an account or Deal within Zoho CRM? Sometimes people use different email to put in a ticket than the one that we have in the CRM, but it's still the same person. We would like to be able

                                  • Good news! Calendar in Zoho CRM gets a face lift

                                    Dear Customers, We are delighted to unveil the revamped calendar UI in Zoho CRM. With a complete visual overhaul aligned with CRM for Everyone, the calendar now offers a more intuitive and flexible scheduling experience. What’s new? Distinguish activities

                                  • Urgent Security Feature Request – Add MFA to Zoho Projects Client Portal Hello Zoho Projects Team,

                                    Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit an urgent security enhancement request regarding the Zoho Projects Client Portal. At this time, as far as we are aware, there is no Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) available

                                  • Unified customer portal login

                                    As I'm a Zoho One subscriber I can provide my customers with portal access to many of the Zoho apps. However, the customer must have a separate login for each app, which may be difficult for them to manage and frustrating as all they understand is that

                                  • Microsoft Teams now available as an online meeting provider

                                    Hello everyone, We're pleased to announce that Zoho CRM now supports Microsoft Teams as an online meeting provider—alongside the other providers already available. Admins can enable Microsoft Teams directly from the Preferences tab under the Meetings

                                  • Zoho Projects - Task Owner filter at Project level

                                    Hi Projects Team, The feature requests I would like to raise is the ability to create a custom view at the project level for projects with tasks owned by a user or users. For example "Ashley's Projects" custom view might contain a list of project in which

                                  • How to display Motivator components in Zoho CRM home page ?

                                    Hello, I created KPI's, games and so but I want to be able to see my KPI's and my tasks at the same time. Is this possible to display Motivator components in Zoho CRM home page ? Has someone any idea ? Thanks for your help.

                                  • Cadences

                                    I have just started using Cadences for follow-up up email pipeline. Is it just me or do you find the functionality very basic? For example, it will tell me (if I go looking for it) if someone has replied to a follow-up and been unenrolled; but it won't

                                  • Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series!

                                    Dear users, Continuing in the spirit of our 'Function Fridays' series, where we've been sharing custom function scripts to automate your back office operations, we're thrilled to introduce our latest initiative – the 'Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series'.

                                  • Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

                                    Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if

                                  • Would be really awesome to have Created Time and Modified Time showing for custom functions list

                                    It would be SO HELPFUL to be able to sort custom functions by created time/ modified time. Also seeing a created by/ modified by with the little profile picture would be supremely helpful as well. Just really hard sometimes to find a function you were

                                  • What's New in Zoho Analytics - October 2025

                                    Hello Users! We're are back with a fresh set of updates and enhancements to make data analysis faster and more insightful. Take a quick look at what’s new and see how these updates can power up your reports and dashboards. Explore What's New! Extreme

                                  • Ticket Export Does Not Include Ticket Threads

                                    Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, I hope you’re doing well. I would like to report an issue regarding the ticket export functionality in Zoho Desk. Currently, when exporting tickets, the ticket threads or conversation history are not included — only the ticket

                                  • Payments made notification

                                    This is a really wonderful feature but we can only use it for about 50% of payments made & have to revert to sending statements which is a real chore. Credits applied to the bills paid in the notification aren't included & this causes great confusion in the accounts receivable departments. Please, please add this required feature asap ! .....

                                  • Ability to add VAT to Retainer Invoices

                                    Hello, I've had a telephone conversation a month ago with Dinesh on this topic and my request to allow for the addition of VAT on Retainer Invoices.  It's currently not possible to add VAT to Retainer Invoices and it was mutually agreed that there is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be, especially as TAX LAW makes VAT mandatory on each invoice in Europe!   So basically, what i'm saying is that if you don't allow us to add VAT to Retainer Invoices, than the whole Retainer Invoices becomes

                                  • Multi-Page Forms in Zoho Creator!

                                    Let’s make long applications easier to handle by dividing them into pages, adding a progress bar, and guiding users step by step through complex data entry. This would be a total game-changer for the user experience and could significantly boost completion

                                  • How to I get checkboxes on a subform to update via deluge

                                    Hello, would someone be able to tell me what I'm doing wrong here? I am trying to take the contents of a Deals subform and add them to an invoice then update the checkbox on each row so that 'add to invoice' is unticked and 'invoiced' is ticked. The output

                                  • ZOHO DESK link with Power BI

                                    HI, I am using ZOHO Desk for last two years and now my client is asking to integrate ZOHO desk data to Power BI so that they can use Data for reporting. Kindly guide in details so that i can give access to ZOHO desk export data for more visibility.

                                  • URLs being masked despite disabling tracking

                                    Hey, We had disabled click tracking from an email update we are sharing with our users. Despite this, the URL the end user is receiving is masked, and looks like "https://qksyl-cmpzourl.maillist-manage.net/click/1d8e72714515cda6/1d8e72714515ca70" instead

                                  • Zoho CRM - Calendar Cards View - Let Users Decide What Is Displayed On Calendar Entries

                                    Imagine planning your week of face-to-face meetings across three counties. You’re trying to group appointments by location to make the best use of your time, but Zoho CRM’s calendar doesn’t show where each meeting is happening. You’re left trying to remember

                                  • Set to Review for all

                                    We are testing the use of Writer as part of an internal review process for statement of work documents and have found that when the document is changed from Compose to Review by one person, that is not reflected for all others who view the document. Is

                                  • Dashboard Autorefesh

                                    Good day, I am a dashboard that displays the number of tickets based on "Product Name". This dashboard is displayed on a big TV for the team to monitor. Can the dashboard auto-refresh every few minutes to display the new values? Currently, we have closed

                                  • Alerts for mentions in comments

                                    We are testing the use of Writer internally and found that when a user is mentioned in a comment, there is no email alert for the mention. Is this something that's configurable, and if so, where can we enable this option?

                                  • Deferred/ Unearned revenue

                                    Dear Zoho Team, Just in case you have missed out my query posted few days ago: We issue invoices relating to 12-month web hosting service. When we issue the invoice, we should record the entire amount of the invoice as DEFERRED/UNEARNED REVENUE (ie. $10

                                  • CRM Related list table in Zoho analytics

                                    In Zoho Analytics, where can I view the tables created from zoho crm related lists? For example, in my Zoho CRM setup, I have added the Product module as a related list in the Lead module, and also the Lead module as a related list in the Product module.

                                  • Report Hover Setting

                                    Would be great if we will able to show information to the user while hovering a record in a report.

                                  • Bigin Android app update: Zoho Books integration

                                    Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce Zoho Books integration on the latest version(v1.8.5) Bigin Android app. Once the integration is completed in the web(bigin.zoho.com), the Zoho Books tab will be visible in detail View of Contacts, Companies,

                                  • Agent assignment filter?

                                    Godo day, We are starting to play with FSM to see if it's going to work for our needs. Now so far we have found that it's very restrcitve in the field department you you have layout rules or can't even hide fields depending on the users roles. We can't

                                  • Audit Log enhancements: Increased retention period, better user visibility, and more

                                    Hello everyone, The Audit Log brings in the following enhancements which improve the overall ability to manage data. Why did we make these updates? Extended Data Retention: Audit data can now be filtered and exported for a 60-day period, doubling the

                                  • Question Regarding Managing Sale Items in Zoho Books

                                    Good day, I was wondering about something. Right now, Zoho Books doesn’t seem to have a way to flag certain items as being on sale. For example, if I want a list of specific items to be on sale from October 1 to October 12, the user would have to export

                                  • [WEBINAR] Smooth year-end closure with Zoho Books (KENYA)

                                    Hello there, This webinar is for all Kenyan businesses looking to wrap up their financial year smoothly! Join our free session to learn how Zoho Books can simplify your year-end process. What to expect from this webinar: - All the latest updates in Zoho

                                  • System flaws and lack of response from Zoho

                                    I have had to go on here as no-one is replying to my emails regarding my problem (been 10 days and no email reply) and your chat facility online through your Zoho Books software opens and closes immediately, so not functioning properly. I actually called

                                  • Customer Grouping

                                    Hi, how can I group multiple customers into single group. So that I can have idea of accounts receivables of all the customers in single group. Like if there are multiple subsidiaries of same company we have having a business with, and want to view the

                                  • Two currencies

                                    More and more I am finding that internattional payments' fees are unpredictable. I would like, on my invoices that are in a foreign currency (eg. USD$ or EUR€) for there to be a GBP£ TOTAL display alongside the invoice's currency total. This would make

                                  • Zoho Books | Product updates | September 2025

                                    Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From PayNow payment method to applying journal credits to invoices and bills in other locations, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Integrate

                                  • Next Page