A Package With A Time Span Comparison

The Senior Citizen Package has the following eligibility rules:

  • Customer class = Residential
  • Division = California
  • Birth date equates to that of a senior citizen

These rules require only one eligibility group on the package. It would look as follows:

Group

No.

Group Description

If Group is TRUE

If Group is FALSE

1

Residential, Calif, Senior

Eligible

Ineligible

The following criteria will be required for this group:

Group 1: Residential, Calif, Senior

Seq

Field to Compare

Comparison Method

If TRUE

If FALSE

If Insufficient Data

10

Algorithm: retrieve order's customer class

= R

Check next condition

Group is false

Group is false

20

Algorithm: retrieve order's division

= CA

Check next condition

Group is false

Group is false

30

Misc Field On Order: Date of Birth

Algorithm: True if senior

Group is true

Group is false

Group is false

The first two criteria are easy; they simply retrieve a field on the order and compare it to a given value. If the comparison doesn't result in a TRUE value, the Group is false (and, the group indicates that if the group is false, the customer isn't eligible for the package). If the comparison results in a TRUE value, the next condition is checked.

The last criterion contains a time span comparison. Time span comparisons are used to compare a date to something. In our example, we have to determine the age of the customer based on their birth date. If the resultant age is > 65, they are considered to be a senior citizen. To pull this off, you can take advantage of a comparison algorithm supplied with the base package as described below.

  • Field to Compare. The miscellaneous field in which the customer's birth date is held is selected.
  • Comparison Method. We chose a comparison algorithm that returns a value of TRUE if the related field value (the customer's date of birth) is greater than 65 years (refer to PKCC-TIMESPN for an example of this type of algorithm).

You'll notice that if a value of TRUE is returned by the True if senior algorithm, the group is true (and we've setup the group to indicate a true group means the customer is eligible).

Note:

The time span algorithm can be used to compare days, weeks, months, etc. Refer to PKCC-TIMESPN for more information about this algorithm.