The cephalic index or cranial index is a number obtained by taking the maximum width (biparietal diameter or BPD, side to side) of the head of an organism, multiplying it by 100 and then dividing it by their maximum length (occipitofrontal diameter or OFD, front to back). The index was once used to categorize human beings in the first half of the 20th century, but today it is used to categorize dogs and cats.