Decision Table Keywords

Different Types of Decision Tables Details of each kind of table

The various keywords are

Keyword	Description	Example
function	The decision table is defined as a function with formal arguments and a return value	function getPrice(COLORS)
entity	defines an entity and its component attributes	entity TOYS
association	defines a relationship between two entities	association TOYS->COLORS
constraints	defines constraints on the values of the attributes	constraints on color
values	defines sets of values that attributes may take
abstract	solves a generic problem with empty placeholder functions. The user will need to supply concrete implementations of these functions that are relevant to their problem domain	allocate(RESOURCES,TASKS)
logic	defines prolog-style predicates. Execution is performed using unification
grammar	defines a backus-normal representation of a language grammar. This can be used for parsing expressions.
lookup	defines a lookup table
pattern	defines dynamic pattern matching rules (RETE-like)
parallel	defines logic that can be processed in parallel
monitor	defines logic that can respond in real time to external events
event	defines logic that can analyse complex event streams
map/reduce	defines logic similar to Hadoop map/reduce
dialogs	defines logic that can manage interactive user dialogs
optimization	defines logic that can be processed by an optimization or constraint engine
graphs	defines logic that can be processed by a graphing tool (eg graphDB)
spreadsheet	defines multi-dimensional logic in the form of a spreadsheet
quantum	defines logic that can be processed by a quantum computer

• Defining Functions (a self contained decision table with well defined inputs and outputs and no side effects)
• Defining Entities (the business objects and their component attributes)
• Defining Constraints (restrictions on the values that attributes can have)
• Defining Associations (relationships between entities)