You can also choose to negate a pattern in the web-guided dtable editor in Guvnor when defining a pattern. You didn't specify whether you were using XLS or Guvnor dtables. On 21 September 2011 20:52, Mark Proctor <mproctor(a)codehaus.org&gt; wrote:

Thanks Mark for the quick reply, but I already know about the "not", I just don't know what the syntax is in a decision table. Normally in a rule I would write: when not ( exists ( Object(pattern == "somePattern")) then ... but I don't know how to represent the above in an XLS spreadsheet decision table. In the cell below CONDITION I can write: exists Object and then in the cell below put the condition: pattern == "SomePattern" and it works great. But I don't know how to introduce the "not" to the above. I tried: not ( exists Object) and it compiled into nothing (that cell was ignored without error), and I tried \( \), nothing, I tried: not exists Object and the compiled rule is missing the parenthesis. -- View this message in context: http://drools.46999.n3.nabble.com/decision-table-not-exists-tp3356570p335... Sent from the Drools: User forum mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Thank you so much Mark, that works!!! Yes, the 'exists' is redundant. I will take you advice and use the drools-templates in the future. -- View this message in context: http://drools.46999.n3.nabble.com/decision-table-not-exists-tp3356570p335... Sent from the Drools: User forum mailing list archive at Nabble.com.