Found this gem in Ellucian's documentation: 2909: Explanation of Rules and Connectives
Colleague
Mnemonic RLDE
The internal documentation on the RLDE Rule Definition screen offers these connectives:
1: WITH With
2: AND And
3: EVERY and every
4: OR Or
5: OREVERY Or every
6: ORWITH Or with
7: OWE Or with every
8: WE With every
Explanation of each connective:
1. WITH
WITH works as a parenthetical AND to start a new true/false condition.
2. AND
AND works with the previous line to determine true or false. The AND statement does *not* start a new parenthetical.
3. EVERY
The EVERY connector evaluates every value within a multi-valued field. Each value in the multi-valued field must equal the defined condition for a true result.
4. OR
OR works with the previous line to determine true or false. The OR connective does *not* start a new parenthetical.
5. OREVERY
Combines the OR and EVERY connectives. As such, it does not start a new parenthetical but works with the previous line to determine true or false. Each value in the multi-valued field must equal the defined condition for a true result.
6. ORWITH
ORWITH begins a new parenthetical to establish a true or false condition. This is in contrast to the WITH connective which is inclusive (AND) whereas ORWITH is exclusive (OR).
7. OWE (ORWITHEVERY)
OWE functions just like ORWITH except that it is used to evaluate multi-valued fields. OWE begins a new exclusive parenthetical and every value in the multi-valued field being evaluated must be equal to the defined condition for a true result.
8. WE (WITHEVERY)
WE combines the WITH and EVERY connectives. As such, it *does* start a new parenthetical. Each value in the multi-valued field being evaluated must be equal to the defined condition for a true result.
To properly build a rule with combinations of OR/AND, keep these facts in mind:
1. The syntax processor within UniData will process AND and OR in the order it finds them from left to right of your sentence. A and B or C or D and E won't necessarily produce the results you expect. For example, if your criteria are as follows:
WITH LAST.NAME EQ 'Smith'
AND STATE EQ 'Virginia'
OR STATE EQ 'Maryland'
OR STATE EQ 'Pennsylvania'
AND FIRST.NAME EQ 'William'
Your result set would consist of persons with last name Smith that live in Virginia and first name William, OR people who live in Maryland or Pennsylvania with first name of William.
2. In the table above, #1 WITH and #2 AND are NOT synonymous and cannot be used inter-changably. They are only inter-changable in a simplest case like A and B and C and D. Here WITH A AND B AND C AND D is the same as WITH A WITH B WITH C WITH D. The key point to remember is that WITH *does* start a new parenthetical while AND does *not* start a new parenthetical.
3. Putting 2 values on the right-hand side of an expression acts as an implied OR. If you want everyone in the states of New York and New Jersey, you can write it as STATE = 'NY','NJ'. This translates as 'with state equal New York OR New Jersey. Note that a comma must be placed between the right-hand side values, which is different than the normal query structure.
4. The best method to get the syntax accurate is to write what you want as a query sentence, being careful to use the word WITH as parentheses around groups. Then use the examples below to create the rule. The second column shows every possible variation of OR and AND with 4 variables. The third column repeats the 2nd, but only uses parentheses when they are necessary to keep the logic accurate.
1 (A and B) and (C and D) A and B and C and D
2 (A and B) and (C or D) A and B and (C or D)
3 (A and B) or (C and D) (A and B) or (C and D)
4 (A and B) or (C or D) (A and B) or C or D
5 (A or B) and (C and D) (A or B) and C and D
6 (A or B) or (C and D) A or B or (C and D)
7 (A or B) or (C or D) A or B or C or D
Here's how the rules should look for each case:
1 A and B and C and D
1st choice 2nd choice (synonymous)
WITH A WITH A
AND B WITH B
AND C WITH C
AND D WITH D
2 A and B and (C or D)
WITH A
AND B
WITH C
OR D
3 (A and B) or (C and D)
WITH A
AND B
ORWITH C
AND D
4 (A and B) or C or D
WITH A
AND B
OR C
OR D
5 (A or B) and C and D
WITH A
OR B
WITH C
AND D
6 A or B or (C and D)
WITH A
OR B
ORWITH C
AND D
7 A or B or C or D
1st choice If you want several values of one variable, use
WITH A WITH variable = 'A' , 'B' , 'C' , 'D'
OR B
OR C
OR D
