Currently, when you delete a field, it breaks any formulas that referred to that field. When the user views the broken formula, the field name is replaced by a non-human-readable string.
Thanks to the scripting API, we can now see that the non-human-readable string in the broken formula is a concatenation of a literal string and the field id of the deleted field
"column_value_" & fieldIdOfDeletedField
I suggest that the string also concatenate the name of the deleted field
"column_value_" &
fieldIdOfDeletedField &
"_" &
ENCODE_URL_COMPONENT(fieldNameOfDeletedField)
This would make fixing broken formulas much easier because the user could see what the original formula was.
The scripting API shows that the field definition for a formula field stores an array of referencedFieldIds. Could that array also somehow store referencedFieldNames? After all, the field definition for a multipleRecordLinks stores both ids and names.
And now for an example …
Say the field {dog age in human year} had the formula
{dog age in calendar years} * 7
If the field {dog age in calendar years} is deleted, the broken formula now looks like
{column_value_fldFRA5nV1QBtrtLi} * 7
I would like the broken formula to look like
{column_value_fldFRA5nV1QBtrtLi_dog+age+in+calendar+years} * 7
or {column_value_fldFRA5nV1QBtrtLi_dog%20age%20in%20calendar%20years} * 7
By the way, for all you dog lovers out there, I know this formula is not really accurate. I am just using it to illustrate a point.
