Maximum number of conditions?

[John Lynn]

I know that I've hit the maximum and have had to split a decision table into multiple tabs, but I cannot seem to find anywhere what that maximum is?

And - is it configurable?

Thanks...

[John Lynn]

Also - looking at the generated _dt,xml file, I only see 16 conditions -- this is the last one:

<condition_column column_value="-" column_number="16"></condition_column>

I have 24 conditions in the spreadsheet. Am I missing conditions 17 to 24?

[paul snow]

No, there isn't any maximum number of conditions.  There is a maximum number of columns (16).  

Of course, I have been rather curious about how you are constructing your tables.  I have never built a table with 24 conditions before.  If you have any doubt about it, you should be able to look at the balance.txt file created in the temp directory of your project at compile time.  It should show you how all your conditions are being used, and if it lists your conditions (17-24) you can rest assured that they are being used.

[John Lynn]

Yes, I see conditions > 16 in the balance.txt. So it's safe to have more that 16 columns, even though they don't appear in the XML output?

[paul snow]

The Balanced.txt file shows you the balanced form of the Decision Tables.  In the balanced form shows every possible combination of the conditions leading to a unique set of actions to take.

So for example, If you had the all table that looks like this:

Condition

A               Y

B                    Y

C                         Y

Then the Balanced form of the table would look like:

A              Y Y Y Y N N N N

B              Y Y N N Y Y N N

C              Y N Y N Y N Y N

The Balanced form of the table isn't limited to 16 columns.  In some sense what it shows you are virtual columns, since really the tables are converted into a decision tree.  However, any Decision Tree can be represented by a Balanced Decision Table, and there are not many (if any) good and easy ways to describe a Decision Tree using just text.