Problem while parsing Rulebase Excel Spreadsheet

Question

Hi All,
My program was running using OPA Determination Engine libraries.
Apparently when trying to parse a rulebase excel spreadsheet, the OPA regards one attribute as unknown even though it has been listed as empty in the excel spreadsheet's cell.
My Data has this information
field1 = XXX
field2 = YYY
field3 = ZZZ
field4 = empty
The excel spreadsheet contains this information
row1: field1 is empty, field2 is empty, field3 is empty, field4 is AAA
row2: field1 is XXX, field2 is YYY, field3 is ZZZ, field4 is empty
Decision Report:
Can't draw conclusion because
field1 = XXX
field2 = YYY
field3 = ZZZ
and field4 is unknown
Any suggestion for this?

Answer 1

I think you are making this more complicated than it needs to be. Based on your description above of the logic, I wouldn't even be using Excel at all, and I wouldn't be doing it as a rule table in Word either.
Using dummy attribute text which I'm just making up for the purpose of this example, it sounds like you're logic can be represented with the following simple regular Word rule:
the person is happy if
the first text variable = "AAA" or
all
.....the first text variable = "XXX" and
.....the second text variable = "YYY" and
.....the third text variable = "ZZZ"If you write it as a regular Word rule like this, then the conclusion WILL evaluate to TRUE if the only data you provide is the following:
the first text variable = "XXX" and
the second text variable = "YYY" and
the third text variable = "ZZZ"
[As an aside... depending on what you're doing and what your real rules actually are, you might also want to separately stick a Boolean attribute over the top of each of these variable attributes and then use the Booleans in the rest of the rulebase. However, I wouldn't bother with the extra Booleans if you're just having a bit of a play around with OPA, or if you're just building a simple little demo.
If you are doing anything more than just having a bit of a look at OPA, then I strongly suggest that you consider some proper OPA training anyway.]