Create Rules Using a Decision Table

Use a decision table to facilitate creating rules that contain many conditions. A complex rule might be more readable in a decision table rather than in a text rule.

After a record complies with all the conditions in a single row of a decision table, the record passes. If the record does not comply with any row, it fails.

You can use a decision table to create rules on a worksheet or in a data domain.

On the right side panel of the worksheet Rules tab or domain Rules dialog, click Decision Table.

The Add Conditions dialog appears where you can enter column names or column expressions, and an optional alias that would make the content of this column expression easier to understand.
On the line under Column Expression, start entering the name of the column on which you want to define a rule, then select the column name from the list that appears automatically.

For example, enter Zi and select Zipcode of the <domain_name> from the list of columns that appears.
(Optional) If you want the rule condition to be on concatenated values of multiple columns, enter + and the name of the next column.
(Optional) On the line under Alias, enter a name.

For example, if you specified FirstName of the <domain_name> + LastName of the <domain_name> under Column Expression, you might want to enter FullName under Alias.
(Optional) To add another column for this rule, click Add Column, and repeat steps 2 through 4.
Click Save.

The decision table appears with the column names across the top and empty condition cells in the next row.
Now that you have created the decision table and defined the column conditions, you can perform the following tasks:
- Define a rule expression for each column condition
- (Optional) Add or delete rows in the decision table
- (Optional) Split a row in the decision table

Save the decision table rule after you have defined, changed, or deleted the rule expressions.

Option	Description
For worksheet rules	Click Save on the Create New Rule dialog
For domain rules	Click the Save icon in the upper right corner

For worksheet rules, click Save.
For domain rules, save the rule by clicking the Save icon in the upper right corner.

You can now take one of the following actions:
For worksheet rules:
- Click the Run All Rules icon on the right bottom of the Rules screen to show the number and percentage of records that failed each rule.
- Click the Data Table icon in the top left corner to return to the worksheet where you can define a filter to show the records that passed or failed each rule.
For domain rules:
- Define scorecards to see how well your data complies with these data quality rules.

Define Rule Expression for Each Column Condition

Define the condition for each column in the empty cell below the column name in the decision table.

Click the empty cell below the first column name.

The column name with the default operator = appears.
(Optional) To specify a different operator, delete the = and enter the operator symbol or name. If you start entering the operator name, you can select it from the suggestion list that appears automatically.

For example, enter is not and select is not equal to from the suggestion list.
Enter the value you want to define for the rule.

If the column is a string data type, enter a value surrounded by single quotation marks.

For each subsequent column in the decision table, repeat steps 1 through 3.

For example, to define a rule that says the Zipcode, State, and City must not be null, specify the following three conditional expressions below each column name in the Decision Table:

Conditions: Zipcode	State	City
is not equal to null	is not equal to null	is not equal to null

Conditions:

Zipcode

State

City

is not equal to null

To edit the expression in a cell, right-click and select Edit.

A window appears with a text line that allows you to see longer expressions more easily.

For more information about rule expressions in decisions tables, see the SAP HANA Rules Framework - Rule Expression Language Guide Information published on SAP site .

Add or Delete Rows in Decision Table

To add a row in a decision table, you can click on the empty cell below the last row and enter the operator and value.

Right-click the cell in front of a row in the decision table to select any of the following options:

Option	Description
Cut Row	Removes the row; right-click on another row to paste it there
Copy Row	Copies the row; right-click on another row to paste it there
Delete Row	Deletes the row from the decision table
Paste Row	Pastes the row that you copied onto this row
Insert Copy Above	Inserts the row that you copied above this row

Split a Row in Decision Table

Use the split option in a decision table when you want to define multiple conditions for the same value of the previous column in the decision table.

For example, suppose you want to define the following rule conditions:

Customers in the state of California and the city of Santa Monica must have a phone number and an email address
Customers in the state of California and the city of Los Angeles must have a phone number
Customers in the state of New York and the city of New York must have a phone number and an email address
Customers in the state of New York and the city of Albany must have an email address

For this rule, you will define the following decision table to split the row for State = 'CA' into two rows for the conditions on City. The empty cell for Email in the second row for CA does not have a condition, which means it can have any value, including null.

Conditions: State	City	Phone	Email
= 'CA'	= 'Santa Monica'	is not equal to null	is not equal to null
= 'CA'	= 'Los Angeles'	is not equal to null
= 'NY'	= 'New York'	is not equal to null	is not equal to null
= 'NY'	= 'Albany''		is not equal to null

To split a row in a decision table, perform the following steps after you have defined the column conditions:

Click in the empty cell of the first column and specify the operator and value.

For the above example, enter 'CA' after the State of the <domain_name> = operand and operator that appear by default.
Right-click the cell after the first column, and select the Split option in the menu that appears.

Note

If you are currently editing the cell, this menu will not appear when you right-click the cell. Click outside of the cell to exit edit mode.

In the above example, right-click in the empty cell for the City column and select Split.
In the first cell of the first row in the split, specify the operator and value you want to define for the rule.

In the above example, enter 'Santa Monica' after City of the <domain_name> = that appears by default.
For each subsequent column in the decision table, repeat step 3.
In the above example, specify the following conditions for the next two cells:
- Phone of the <domain_name> is not equal to null
- Email of the <domain_name> is not equal to null
For the second row of the split, repeat steps 3 and 4.
In the above example, specify the following conditions for the three cells:
- City of the <domain_name> = 'Los Angeles'
- Phone of the <domain_name> is not equal to null
- Leave the Email cell empty to indicate it can have any value, including null.

For more information about rule expressions in decisions tables, see the SAP HANA Rules Framework - Rule Expression Language Guide Information published on SAP site .