Formula Break-Down Without Space Penalty

Darin_Seibel

Currently, to adhere to best practices it is beneficial to break out parts of a complex calculation into separate line items for logic traceability and audit-ability. However, in many models we're constrained by space and can effectively reduce space (especially in large multi-dimensioned modules) by combining logic in line items.

To better strike a balance of simplification and size, I'd propose that there is a new subcategory of line items created where such lines (especially if used for logic calculations within the same module) are not considered for a model space and (possibly) not held in memory, but instead are considered one value in aggregate. We could designate such "constituent" lines in the module and those lines could be restricted in how their used within the model, but would result in workspace size efficiencies.

For example, consider line consisting of multiple nested arguments. If each argument is instead broken out into a separate module line it is much easier to follow to a summary line that then relies on the constituent logic parts, versus the one large nested line. If each of those argument lines are only used in the building up of the summary line, potentially those lines could be considered the same in space as if the entire logic was in the nested formula in the first place.