Newbie Question: Rules: Functions: How to compare String based type?

Question

I have some XML facts in my rules dictionary defined by the following schema (fragments shown)
<xs:simpleType name="VarType">
   <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
      <xs:enumeration value="Foo"/>
      <xs:enumeration value="Bar"/>
      <xs:enumeration value="Baz"/>
      <xs:enumeration value="Qux"/>
   </xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
<xs:complexType name="ProgType">
   <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="ID" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="var" type="VarType" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
   </xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
Which means that a Prog of ProgType has an ID and a "list" of "var" strings restricted to bounds specified by VarType.
The issue comes when I try to create a Rules Function operating on these types.
Function-> boolean containsVar(ProgType prog,VarType var) (built using the Functions tab of the Rules editor)
for (String v : prog.var ){
   if (v == var){
      return true
return false
The problem we run into here is typing. If v is declared a String, as here, then v == var is invalid because types don't match. But I can't declare v a VarType due to
RUL-05583: a primitive type or fact type is expected, but neither can be found.
This problem may stem from the fact the Java's String is declared final and can't be subclassed, so the JAXB translation to Java may have to wrap it, futzing ==/equals() in the process.
SO... How do I create this method and compare these values?
TIA
Edited by: wylderbeast on Mar 10, 2011 9:15 AM - typos
Edited by: wylderbeast on Mar 10, 2011 9:18 AM

Answer 1

And here's the answer.
var.value() seems to return the String value of the type
so the comparison becomes
(v == var.value())
Live and learn....