Data Types and Operators

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This section describes the valid data types and operators used in the expression body of the expression recordset. An operator is applied to the child element(s) of the CLAUSE element. The following structure:

      <CLAUSE OPER>
         <PROPERTY />
         <IMMED-VAL></IMMED-VAL>
      </CLAUSE>

represents an operation of the form:

      Operator
         Argument1
         Argument2

which is easier to interpret as:

      Argument1 Operator Argument2

For example:

      <CLAUSE OPER="equal" >
         <PROPERTY ID="user.hair.color" TYPE="string" />
         <IMMED-VAL TYPE="string">"brown"</IMMED-VAL>
      </CLAUSE>

results in the evaluation of the expression:

      "user.hair.color" = "brown" ?

Data types are specified in the PROPERTY and IMMED-VAL elements, which are child elements of the CLAUSE element. The expression architecture supports the following data types: bool, currency, date, datetime, number, siteterm, string, and time. A generic data type (not recognized as from the previous list) may be used, but with a limited set of operators. For CLAUSE elements with two arguments, the data types must match.

The valid operators for each data type are specified in the following tables. The MV column specifies which arguments, if any, can be multi-valued. All operators must be specified in lowercase.

Bool

Operator MV Description
equal None Returns true if arg1 = arg2
not-equal None Returns true if arg1 != arg2

Currency, Number

Operator MV Description
equal None Returns true if arg1 = arg2
not-equal None Returns true if arg1 != arg2
greater-than None Returns true if arg1 > arg2
less-than None Returns true if arg1 < arg2
at-least None Returns true if arg1 >= arg2
at-most None Returns true if arg1 <= arg2
in Arg2 Returns true if arg1 appears anywhere in the list in arg2
not-in Arg2 Returns true if arg1 appears nowhere in the list in arg2
contains Arg1 Returns true if arg2 appears anywhere in the list in arg1
not-contains Arg1 Returns true if arg2 appears nowhere in the list in arg1
intersects Both Returns true if the intersection of the lists arg1 and arg2 is not the empty set
not-intersects Both Returns true if the intersection of the lists arg1 and arg2 is the empty set

Date, Time, Datetime

Operator MV Description
equal None Returns true if arg1 = arg2
not-equal None Returns true if arg1 != arg2
before None Returns true if arg1 is before arg2
after None Returns true if arg1 is after arg2
on-or-before None Returns true if arg1 is the same as or before arg2
on-or-after None Returns true if arg1 is the same as or after arg2
in Arg2 Returns true if arg1 appears anywhere in the list in arg2
not-in Arg2 Returns true if arg1 appears nowhere in the list in arg2
contains Arg1 Returns true if arg2 appears anywhere in the list in arg1
not-contains Arg1 Returns true if arg2 appears nowhere in the list in arg1
intersects Both Returns true if the intersection of the lists arg1 and arg2 is not the empty set
not-intersects Both Returns true if the intersection of the lists arg1 and arg2 is the empty set

Expression

An expression is not a data type of the PROPERTY and IMMED-VAL elements. An expression is an integer value that is evaluated as part of the EXPR-REF element. It is included in the following table for completeness in describing the available operators.

Operator MV Description
is-true None Returns true if specified expression is true
is-false None Returns true if specified expression is false

Generic

If a profile PROPERTY element is specified as the only argument (child element) of a CLAUSE element, any generic data type can be used with the operators listed in the following table.

Operator MV Description
is-defined None Returns true if the property is defined. Returns false if this argument is missing.
not-defined None Returns true if the property is not defined or if this argument is missing.

Siteterm

Operator MV Description
equal None Returns true if arg1 = arg2
not-equal None Returns true if arg1 != arg2
in Arg2 Returns true if arg1 appears anywhere in the list in arg2
not-in Arg2 Returns true if arg1 appears nowhere in the list in arg2
contains Arg1 Returns true if arg2 appears anywhere in the list in arg1
not-contains Arg1 Returns true if arg2 appears nowhere in the list in arg1
intersects Both Returns true if the intersection of the lists arg1 and arg2 is not the empty set
not-intersects Both Returns true if the intersection of the lists arg1 and arg2 is the empty set

String

Operator MV Description
equal None Returns true if arg1 = arg2.
not-equal None Returns true if arg1 != arg2.
contains None Returns true if arg2 appears anywhere in arg1. (For example, "Donnie" contains "nn".)
not-contains None Returns true if arg2 does not appear anywhere in arg1. (For example, "flintstone" does not contain "stones".)
begins-with None Returns true if the first part of arg2 matches arg1.
not-begins-with None Returns true if the first part of arg2 does not match arg1.
in Arg2 Returns true if arg1 appears anywhere in the list in arg2.
not-in Arg2 Returns true if arg1 appears nowhere in the list in arg2.
contains Arg1 Returns true if arg2 appears anywhere in the list in arg1.
not-contains Arg1 Returns true if arg2 appears nowhere in the list in arg1.
intersects Both Returns true if the intersection of the lists arg1 and arg2 is not the empty set.
not-intersects Both Returns true if the intersection of the lists arg1 and arg2 is the empty set.

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