12. Keywords and Functions

TreeAge Pro includes a wide variety of functions which make it easier to perform some commonly-used mathematical operations, or in some cases to provide access to special features in TreeAge Pro. This section will provide an overview of different functions and also keywords (words which are defined in TreeAge) and can be used for specific actions.

Some general information which applies to many functions:

• TreeAge Pro’s built-in functions are not case sensitive, with the name mostly followed by parentheses and in most cases different arguments in the parentheses.

• Functions that have multiple arguments must use semicolon “;” as the separators.

• In the tree window, use the Formula Editor for help in assigning the correct parameters to each functions. Its much easier to review longer formulas in the Formula Editor, than in the text editing space.

• To test how a function works and its outcome, use the Calculator/Evaluator tool as described in Variable Testing Tools (& Evaluator) .

• The section about Distributions: creating, editing and using, covers a special set of functions used in Monte Carlo simulation.

• The section about Linking a model to Excel - Bilinks covers a special set of functions that take text string arguments, instead of numeric or variable expressions.

• The section Advanced Markov Model topics covers a special set of functions used in Markov modeling, for example in calculating transition probabilities.