Common Types of Rule Statements Overview

You can define all or part of a business rule in a rule statement. Define a rule statement for each fact that a business rule must discover. The type of rule statement that you define depends on the business rule requirements.

You can use rule statements to verify and update the following business facts:

Verify the accuracy of business data

Define a rule statement that compares input data to a reference table.

Use the rule statement to verify that the business data is accurate. For example, define a rule statement to verify that a product description table uses the current product codes.

Find obsolete or out-of-date business data

Define a rule statement to find values that are no longer relevant to the business.

Use the rule statement to return a user-defined value that identifies any row that contains an obsolete or out-of-date term.

Standardize business data values

Define a rule statement that searches for values that you specify and replaces them with other values.

Use the rule statement to verify that the business data follows a standard format. For example, define a rule statement to verify that financial data does not use currency symbols. The rule statement replaces the currency symbols with agreed abbreviations for the currency names.

Improve the usability of business data

Define a rule statement that removes redundant characters and redundant strings.

Use the rule statement to ensure that users and software applications can read the business data correctly. For example, define a rule statement to delete character spaces at the start and end of a data fields.

Use data values to discover information about business users

Define a rule statement that correlates information from different inputs. Use different conditions to analyze the inputs, and connect the conditions with AND logic. For example, define conditions to link different facts about customers and to improve the customer service to the customers.

Use data values to verify a business policy

Define a rule statement that verifies that the business follows a stated policy.

Use the rule statement to define an expression that represents the policy.

Update data values to match business standards

Define a rule statement that adds characters to data values so that the values meet the current business standards.

Use the rule statement to define an expression that updates the values.

Verify that you applied a business rule to a data set

Define a rule statement that adds the current date and time to a data set.

Use the rule statement to add a time stamp to the data set that indicates when the mapping ran.