Errors and warnings
In the Business console, you can use automatic cell checking to highlight problems in decision tables.
The decision table editor tags inconsistent content, overlaps, and gaps with triangles. The console automatically checks the contents of a decision table when you open the table. It displays error and warning tags in preview and the decision table editor.
To view the cause of an error or warning, hover your mouse over the tagged cell or the header of the column that contains the cell. A message box opens with a description of the problem. When you hover over the column header, the message box shows the rule statement for the column along with a list of any problems in the column.
You can turn off the cell checking. In the decision table editor, open Details and clear the check box for the type of checking that you want to stop. You can completely stop the checking by clearing the boxes for both Check gaps and Check overlaps.
Errors
- Unexpected value
- Entering the wrong type of value, for example, a word where a number is expected.
- Mixed characters
- Entering an unexpected character, for example, adding a letter to a number.
- Incorrect value
- Entering a word or number that does not match any of the values that are defined for a parameter.
- Wrong operator
- Entering an operator that places a value out of scope for the rule statement.
When an error occurs, the console tags it as shown in the following illustration:
Warnings for overlaps and gaps
The console warns you when overlaps or gaps occur between rows with shared conditions. These anomalies do not stop a decision table from working. However, they might produce incorrect results. Typically, ranges in tables are contiguous, and do not overlap.
- Overlaps
- When two cells in a column contain ranges that include the same values. In the example, the ranges [200,000; 300,000] and [200,000; 600,000] both include the numbers 200,000 to 300,000.
- Gaps
- When two cells in a column contain ranges that do not include values between the ranges. In the example, the ranges < 100,000 and [200,000; 600,000] do not cover the numbers between 100,000 and 200,000.
When overlaps and gaps occur in a table, the console tags them as shown in the following illustration:
You can select overlap and gap checking for an individual column or an entire table.
For an individual column:
- Right-click the header of the column.
- Select or clear Check Gap or Check Overlap.
For an entire table:
- Click Details.
- Select or clear Check Gap or Check Overlap.
Updating warnings in a decision table
The decision table rule editor provides manual and automatic row ordering. How you update the warnings varies with the different row ordering modes.- Automatic row ordering
- Click Optimize Row Order
to update the gap and overlap warnings. The warnings are displayed when the row order and
partitions are updated. Any change in a partition resets the errors, for example, a change in the
value of a condition cell.
- Manual row ordering
- All the editing commands update the errors. For example, if you change the value of a cell and press Enter, the editor checks the table for errors and updates the warnings.
Displaying errors and warnings together
If a table contains errors and warnings, both are tagged in the table. However, because errors are more severe than warnings, the table displays an error marker in the header of any column that contains both errors and warnings.
The following table shows a column with errors and warnings:
