BAL keywords and features

When writing rules for COBOL code execution, the BAL keywords and BAL features you use must be compatible with COBOL.

Note:

Deprecated feature: 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