Creating a decision table

You use the decision table editor to create and work with decision tables and use the special facilities provided.

About this task

Decision tables comprise rows and columns, and each row corresponds to a rule. They are used to represent in tabular form all possible situations that a business decision may encounter, and to specify which action to take in each of these situations.

Procedure

  1. Use one of the following options to create the decision table
    Option Procedure
    Create a decision table at the root of the task model In the task model toolbar, click the Add decision table button Add business rule button.
    Create a decision table inside a folder or subfolder
    1. Open the folder.
    2. Click the + button, and select New decision table.
  2. Click the default name of the decision table to update it.
  3. Start defining the condition and action columns for the decision table.

Results

You can now use the decision table editor to define the condition and action columns for the decision table, and to specify values for each row, that is, for each rule.

For more information about how to build data tables, see Working with decision tables. The rule language reference manual is available in the Rule language section.

Example

For example, consider a decision that defines the minimum age requirement for renting a car depending on the state where the rental originates.

When you create a table, the table template contains two empty condition columns and an empty action column. You can generate a table that is closer to the decision logic that you want to express by selecting the input data that the table needs to make the decision.

Here, the input data is the age of the driver and the state where the rental originates.