Item Rule Data Types

Attributes in item rules belong to one of a set of data types.

In item rule expressions, all values are of one of the data types listed in the following table.

Data Type	Description
String	All strings and text characters
Number	All decimals and integers
Date	Dates only, without times
Time	Times only, without dates
DateTime	Combination of Date and Time

Null or Empty Values

Any attribute referenced in an item rule can have an empty or null value. To test for empty or null values you must use the function isnull.

Strings

Strings are delimited by double or single quotation marks (" or ').To escape a character's normal value (for example, in a regular expression), prefix it with the backslash (\).

Numbers

Depending on the setting of the regional preference for number format, the decimal point in decimal numbers can be represented by either a period character (.) or by a comma (,). If the comma is used as a decimal point, then arguments to functions must be delimited by semicolons (;).

Dates and Times

Dates and times are represented by the types Date, DateTime, and Time.

Dates will be entered in the format that you specify in the setting of the regional preference for date format . Date constants will automatically be reformatted if a you log in with a difference preference.

The following expression using a Date value is valid:

[Item].[Logistics].[StartDate] > "2005-Feb-23"

When writing an expression containing terms representing dates and times, enclose them in double quotation marks. They're internally converted to String values before they're compared. The following expression compares an attribute value to a textual date term.

Days can be added to a Date using Numbers. For example, the following expression computes the sell date as 30 days after the availability date:

[Item].[Logistics].[SellDate] > [Logistics].[AvailableDate] + 30

You can't perform date calculations involving Custom Calendars.