See below. On 3 January 2012 13:01, Lalitha <v.lalithasri(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: It is much better to write a condition that selects just the objects you're really interested here, i.e., the ones containing the characters you want to eliminate, thus: c: CustomerInfo( customerName matches ".*[*#].*" ) I assume that you assume that data is a String, but you haven't assigned it a value. And even if you do, you cannot modify a String. This is simple Java coding, and I'd say that you should go and study a Java text book. Here's the right hand side code I'd use: String data = c.getCustomerName().replaceAll( "[*#]", "" ); modify( c ){ setCustomerName( data ) } I don't think you want to replace these characters with "null". I think you just want to remove them from the string, so that "foo*bar#baz" becomes "foobarbaz". -W

It will work but it isn't at all declarative but instead very procedural - it is effectively the same as retrieving all the rows from the database and then filtering them yourself. You've also failed to inform drools that you have updated the CustomerInfo object. Assuming customerName is a string in terms of java code it is also extremely inefficient and verbose (and badly broken as data isn't defined). String has the replace and replaceAll methods to replace characters far more efficiently than the approach below. I'd probably have something like Rule "Wild char validation" When c: CustomerInfo(name : customerName matches ".*([\*#].*") //any string containing a * or a # then modify(c) { setCustomerName(name.replaceAll("[\*#]", "")); //replace any * or # with "" } end if you don't like regex you could also do Rule "Wild char validation" When c: CustomerInfo(eval(customerName.contains("*") || customerName.contains("#"))) //any string containing a * or a # then String name = c.getCustomerName(); name = name.replace("#",""); name = name.replace("*",""); modify(c) { setCustomerName(name); } end other similar variations are available - depending on your throughput you may want to experiment with whether there are many differences in terms of performance. Thomas ************************************************************************************** This message is confidential and intended only for the addressee. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the postmaster(a)nds.com and delete it from your system as well as any copies. The content of e-mails as well as traffic data may be monitored by NDS for employment and security purposes. To protect the environment please do not print this e-mail unless necessary. NDS Limited. Registered Office: One London Road, Staines, Middlesex, TW18 4EX, United Kingdom. A company registered in England and Wales. Registered no. 3080780. VAT no. GB 603 8808 40-00 **************************************************************************************

Good points - hopefulyl the gist of what I was suggesting came across - I like to leave debugging what I spew out as an exercise for the reader.... From: rules-users-bounces(a)lists.jboss.org [mailto:rules-users-bounces@lists.jboss.org] On Behalf Of Wolfgang Laun Sent: 03 January 2012 14:28 To: Rules Users List Subject: Re: [rules-users] Removing Special Characters On 3 January 2012 14:49, Swindells, Thomas <TSwindells@nds.com<mailto:TSwindells@nds.com>> wrote: It will work Not the way it was posted. At least, StringBuffer.setCharAt() needs a second argument of type char, and this would be a strange type for a "customer name" field. Rule "Wild char validation" When c: CustomerInfo(name : customerName matches ".*([\*#].*") //any string containing a * or a # There's a syntax error here, use ".*[*#].*", because you don't need to quote '*' inside '[...]', and if you do (which is OK) you'll have to use '\\'. then modify(c) { setCustomerName(name.replaceAll("[\*#]", "")); //replace any * or # with "" } end Same here: either no '\' or doubled. -W ________________________________ ************************************************************************************** This message is confidential and intended only for the addressee. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the postmaster(a)nds.com and delete it from your system as well as any copies. The content of e-mails as well as traffic data may be monitored by NDS for employment and security purposes. To protect the environment please do not print this e-mail unless necessary. NDS Limited. Registered Office: One London Road, Staines, Middlesex, TW18 4EX, United Kingdom. A company registered in England and Wales. Registered no. 3080780. VAT no. GB 603 8808 40-00 **************************************************************************************

On 4 January 2012 06:02, Lalitha <v.lalithasri(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: The Drools Expert manual contains a documentation of the syntax for the left hand side. Within eval(), you just use Java syntax, defined in the Java Language Specification or described in any text book on Java. The same is true fir the right hand side, which is Java, with a few extensions which are documented in the Expert manual, too. I suppose you just didn't get the syntax right? To test whether something is equal without regard for case you might use Customer( eval( name.toUpperCase().equals( "SMITH" ) ) ) -W