Calculated columns in SharePoint are extremely useful for deriving values from other fields (e.g., [StartDate] + 7 or concatenating text).
When building custom integrations with the SharePoint REST API, developers often ask: can I query, filter, or update calculated fields?
This article explains exactly what is supported, the limitations, and how to retrieve both the evaluated results and the formula itself.

Using Calculated Fields with the SharePoint REST API

Introduction

Calculated columns in SharePoint are extremely useful for deriving values from other fields (e.g., [StartDate] + 7 or concatenating text).
When building custom integrations with the SharePoint REST API, developers often ask: can I query, filter, or update calculated fields?
This article explains exactly what is supported, the limitations, and how to retrieve both the evaluated results and the formula itself.

1. Reading Calculated Values

When you query list items through the REST API, calculated fields are automatically evaluated by SharePoint.
This means the API returns the final computed value, not the raw formula.

Example request:

GET https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/YourSite/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('Projects')/items?$select=Id,Title,CalculatedField

Example response:

{
  "Id": 1,
  "Title": "Project A",
  "CalculatedField": "150"  // result already evaluated
}

👉 In your C# or JavaScript code, you can simply include the calculated field name in $select and consume the output like any other column.

2. Reading the Formula (Field Schema)

If you need the formula definition itself, you must query the field metadata instead of list items.

Example request:

GET https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/YourSite/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('Projects')/fields?$filter=InternalName eq 'CalculatedField'

Example response:

{
  "Title": "MyCalc",
  "InternalName": "CalculatedField",
  "Formula": "=[StartDate]+7",
  "OutputType": "Number"
}

This allows you to document or validate how the field is computed.

3. Limitations

Working with calculated fields in REST has some important restrictions:

4. Practical Scenarios

• Reporting / Logging: You can include calculated fields in logs or dashboards to provide additional context without writing custom formulas in your code.
• Metadata validation: By reading the formula via /fields, you can programmatically confirm consistency across lists.
• Migration projects: When exporting or cloning lists, knowing the calculated formula helps rebuild them in another environment.

5. Conclusion

Calculated fields are powerful inside SharePoint, but with the REST API their role is read-only.

• You can fetch their evaluated values in item queries.
• You can fetch the formula definition from the field schema.
• But you cannot directly filter, sort, or update them via REST.

For automation scenarios, treat calculated columns as helper outputs: consume them where needed, but rely on regular columns for filtering or updating.