Constants

Constant are fixed, immutable numbers or texts, which are written into the decision table as a defined value.

Numeric constants are always specified in the decision table in the English spelling, i.e. with a point as decimal separator. There must always be a digit before the decimal point (i.e. "0.3" instead of ".3"). A declaration as either a whole or decimal number is equivalent ("1" = "1.0"). Specifying a grouping symbol (thousands separator) is not possible in the decision table.

Examples:

1234
-12.3
0.7

String constants always be enclosed in single straight apostrophes. If the text contains special characters (the text delimiter ’ itself or the \ character), they must be prefixed with the character \. This is especially true for paths of files or directories.

An "empty" text can be specified by two consecutive single quotes (’’). This does not represent the NOVAL state. One or more spaces specified between the apostrophes will also be stored. This difference is especially important when comparing texts.

Examples:

’This is a text’
’ It\’s correct like this’
’c:\\temp\\example.txt’