| Spread Windows Forms 8.0 Product Documentation > Developer's Guide > Customizing Sheet Interaction > Customizing Interaction with a Sheet > Creating Tables > Understanding Structured References > Understanding Structured Reference Syntax Rules |
Structured references have additional syntax rules listed as follows:
All table, column, and special item specifiers must be enclosed in matching brackets ([ ]). A specifier that contains other specifiers requires outer matching brackets to enclose the inner matching brackets of the other specifiers.
For example: =DeptSales[[SalesPerson]:[Region]]
All column headers are text strings, but do not require quotes when they are used in a structured reference. If a column header contains numbers or dates, such as 2004 or 1/1/2004, these are still considered text strings. Because column headers are text strings, you cannot use expressions within brackets.
For example: =DeptSalesFYSummary[[2004]:[2002]]
If a table column header contains one of the following special characters, the entire column header must be enclosed in brackets. This means double brackets are required in a column specifier with the following special characters: Space, tab, line feed, carriage return, comma (,), colon (:), period (.), left bracket ([) , right bracket (]), pound sign (#), single quotation mark ('), double quotation mark ("), left brace ({), right brace (}), dollar sign ($), caret (^), ampersand (&), asterisk (*), plus sign (+), equal sign (=), minus sign (-), greater than symbol (>), less than symbol (<), and division sign (/).
For example: =DeptSalesFYSummary[[Total$Amount]]
The only exception to this is if the only special character that is used is a space character.
For example: =DeptSales[Total Amount]
The following characters have special meaning and require the use of a single quotation mark (') as an escape character: Left bracket ([), right bracket (]), pound sign(#), and single quotation mark (').
For example: =DeptSalesFYSummary['#OfItems]
You can use space characters to improve the readability of a structured reference. You can use one space after the first left bracket ([) and preceding the last right bracket (]). You can also use one space after a comma.
For example: