findvalue

FINDVALUE is a term used in data processing and programming to denote an operation that retrieves the value associated with a given key or condition from a collection. In practice, FINDVALUE appears as a function or operator in various languages and DSLs; its exact syntax and return behavior vary between environments.

A typical form is FINDVALUE(collection, key, defaultValue), where collection is a dictionary, map, JSON object, or similar mapping structure; key specifies the lookup target; and defaultValue is returned if the key is not present. In databases or data pipelines, FINDVALUE-like behavior may be achieved by a lookup or join followed by selecting a value, with a fallback when no match exists.

Common uses include retrieving configuration values from a map, extracting a field from a record by key, or obtaining a property from a JSON object. Examples: FINDVALUE(config, "timeout", 30) returns the timeout value if present, otherwise 30. Example: FINDVALUE(users, "alice", null) returns the value associated with the user key "alice" or null if missing.

Because there is no universal FINDVALUE standard, many languages offer equivalent functionality under different names, such as lookup, get, map[key], or VLOOKUP-like operations in spreadsheets.

See also: lookup, dictionary (associative array), map, VLOOKUP, JSONPath, XPath.