About Rules, Rule Sets, and Expressions

A rule specifies conditions to be evaluated and actions to be taken if those conditions are satisfied. Rules are grouped together into rule sets. Rule sets are logical collections of rules that are grouped together because of interactions or dependencies between the rules or because they are processed together when they are published.
Most rules correspond to this form:
if condition_expressions then action_expressions
For example, suppose you have the following rule:
if customer_debt > customer_assets then app_status = "Decline"
In this case, customer_debt is a condition term, and customer_debt > customer_assets is a condition expression. The term app_status is an action term, and app_status = "Decline" is an action expression. To enter this rule in the rule set editor, you first need to add the terms customer_debt and app_status to the rule set editor, and then enter the expressions under the terms to which the expressions apply.
The following figure shows the rule set editor with this rule added to it:
Image Showing the Rule as It Appears In SAS Business Rules Manager
Condition expressions are not required. Rules with only action expressions are always executed.
A single rule can have multiple terms, conditions, and actions. Multiple condition expressions within the same rule are joined together with the AND operand. For example, suppose you define the following rule in SAS Business Rules Manager:
rule with two condition terms: Credit_Score and Homeowner. Credit_Score is numeric and greater than 700. Homeowner is Boolean and is equal to True.
SAS Business Rules Manager generates the following rule condition:
(Credit_Score > 700) AND (Homeowner = True)
It generates the following assignments:
Approved=True 
Interest_Rate=4.5
Action expressions are always assignment statements.
Last updated: February 22, 2017