BAL keywords and features
When writing rules for COBOL code execution, the BAL keywords and BAL features you use must be compatible with COBOL.
The COBOL code generation feature is deprecated in V8.5. This feature will be removed in a future release of the product. Use the COBOL Generation Project Migration wizard to migrate your Rules for COBOL project to a zRule Execution Server for z/OS® compatible rule project. See Deprecated features for migration details.
The following lists outline the BAL features that you can use, and those that you cannot.
BAL features you can use:
Basic conditions and BAL constructs
Most BAL literals, including Simple Date
The following BAL operators:
BAL number operators that check range
Arithmetic operators, except for the Number + String operation, for example: 10 + "5"
Operations of the mapped BOM types (including the Java™ types String and Date)
The if / else rule structure
BAL features you cannot use:
Char, for example 'A'
Universal date type, for example m/d/y h:mm:ss
Time type, for example h:mm:ss
Time operator, for example 'car rent date' is at 05:00:00 PM
Collection/array conditions
Collection/array constructs
Functions
The COBOL code generator does not generate EVALUATE statements. It uses nested IF statements to optimize code generation for decision tables.