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[REFERENCE] & [LASTVALUE] - Retrieving Historical User Data

By combining the [REFERENCE] and [LASTVALUE] functions, you can retrieve historical attribute values. A common application is to retrieve a user's previous manager and department details, which is useful for processes like sending email notifications during a position change. This guide also covers using the[IFEMPTYUSE] function to provide a fallback value if historical data does not exist.


Syntaxes

  • [LASTVALUE; Attribute]: Retrieves the most recent previous value of the specified Attribute.

  • [REFERENCE; AttributeToReturn; LookupAttribute; LookupValue; MatchValue]: Looks up an object and returns a specified attribute from it.

  • [IFEMPTYUSE; PrimaryValue; FallbackValue]: Returns the PrimaryValue if it is not empty; otherwise, it returns the FallbackValue.


Use Cases

Retrieving a Previous Manager's Contact Information

To find the email address or display name of a user's most recent former manager, you can use [LASTVALUE; Manager] as the value to look up.


  • To get the Previous Manager's Email:

    [REFERENCE;Email;UserId;1;[LASTVALUE;Manager]]


  • To get the Previous Manager's Name:

    [REFERENCE;DisplayName;UserId;1;[LASTVALUE;Manager]]


Providing a Fallback to the Current Manager

If a previous manager is not found, the expressions above will return an empty value. To provide the current manager's details as a fallback, wrap the expression in an[IFEMPTYUSE] function.


  • Email (Fallback to Current Manager):

    [IFEMPTYUSE;[REFERENCE;Email;UserId;1;[LASTVALUE;Manager]];[REFERENCE;Email;UserId;1;[manager]]]

  • Name (Fallback to Current Manager):

    [IFEMPTYUSE;[REFERENCE;DisplayName;UserId;1;[LASTVALUE;Manager]];[REFERENCE;DisplayName;UserId;1;[manager]]]


Advanced Usage: Non-Exact Matching

The [REFERENCE] function has an optional final parameter that determines if the lookup requires an exact match:

[REFERENCE;AttributeToReturn;LookupAttribute;LookupValue;MatchValue;IsExactMatch]

When the IsExactMatch parameter is set to false, the MatchValue field supports wildcards (%). This is useful for complex, position-specific lookups, such as when a manager is employed across multiple companies and may have more than one UserId.