Calculations are a type of data point that are used to calculate values that you don't want or need exposed to the users of your system.

This might be for several reasons, such as….

• The value simply isn't of any use or interest to your users,
  
• The value is something proprietary that you'd prefer to keep secret from users,
• The value is not a simple string or floating-point value

Outputs are very similar to calculations, but outputs are published.

Calculations are not available from OPC-UA.