So what you are trying to say is that you want a rule to fire if there exists a name from (a, b, c) such that there are no object with that name? Which is probably something like the following: global $collection (which is set to the list exists ( $name: String from $collection not Object(name == $name) ) Then ... You'll probably have to fix the syntax but that may get you closer. 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 **************************************************************************************

I don't think you can unfortunately. You've got a number of options: 1. define a global (in sheet headers) and insert the actual values from code (perhaps reading from the spreadsheet). 2. Define a custom datatype "Name", have a table with which each row inserts a Name object with associated value and then use it in your when clause like any other fact. 3. Have a separate row for each name, use activation groups or inserting a lock/latch object, or insert logical chaining so that the then part is only executed once. 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 **************************************************************************************

Ahh, cool, Wish I had known that before, I've had to use some horrible regex "a|b|c" matches expressions in my current spreadsheet where this may have been easier. Thomas From: rules-users-bounces(a)lists.jboss.org [mailto:rules-users-bounces@lists.jboss.org] On Behalf Of Edson Tirelli Sent: 23 June 2010 15:38 To: Rules Users List Subject: Re: [rules-users] "Not exists" on at least one element from the set Actually he can. Just use a simple trick and the mvel inline collection syntax: $name: String() from return( ["a", "b", "c" ] ) Just to explain: in MVEL, you can inline create a collection by using [ ]. The DRL syntax does not allow you to use [] directly, but you can use a "return" statement to wrap the [] and return the collection created inline. Yes, I know that ideally we should not need the "return", but for now, the parser requires it and due to some ambiguities in the grammar we could not get rid of this limitation yet. Maybe in the future. Edson 2010/6/23 Swindells, Thomas <TSwindells@nds.com<mailto:TSwindells@nds.com>> I don't think you can unfortunately. You've got a number of options: 1. define a global (in sheet headers) and insert the actual values from code (perhaps reading from the spreadsheet). 2. Define a custom datatype "Name", have a table with which each row inserts a Name object with associated value and then use it in your when clause like any other fact. 3. Have a separate row for each name, use activation groups or inserting a lock/latch object, or insert logical chaining so that the then part is only executed once. Thomas ************************************************************************************** This message is confidential and intended only for the addressee. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the postmaster@nds.com<mailto:postmaster@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 ************************************************************************************** _______________________________________________ rules-users mailing list rules-users@lists.jboss.org<mailto:rules-users@lists.jboss.org> https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/rules-users -- Edson Tirelli JBoss Drools Core Development JBoss by Red Hat @ www.jboss.com<http://www.jboss.com> ________________________________ ************************************************************************************** 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 **************************************************************************************

Missing an "and": exists ( $name: String() from return( ['a', 'b', 'c' ] ) and not Object(name == $name) ) []s Edson 2010/6/23 LeoIo <begemot57(a)hotmail.com&gt; -- Edson Tirelli JBoss Drools Core Development JBoss by Red Hat @ www.jboss.com