Intervals of values
For the moment the intervals are only defined for numerical values (not for date and time values).
An interval can only be assigned to a cell belonging to a column defined as a value (so an interval can’t be assigned to key columns).
An interval is a range of possible values for a cell. If you know that the value of you cell for Calendar Year 2006 must be somewhere between 100 and 500, you can specify it in NBi with the following syntax:
You can use open or closed left and right bounds to specify if the bounds are contained or not in your interval. The sample here under assigns a range starting just after 100 and ending at 500 (included).
Infinite
Some intervals cover all the values greater than one million or lower than -200. In this case, the lower (or upper) bound is defined as the positive or negative infinite. To represent an infinite value in NBi, you can use the syntax -INF or +INF
Following intervals are valid:
Note that for infinite the notion of open or closed bound is not relevant.
Special intervals
For readability of your test it’s sometimes useful to use a more readable syntax to define a few specific intervals. Following short-cuts are understood by NBi
Description | Standard interval | literal short-cut | numeric short-cut |
---|---|---|---|
Greater than 0 | ]0;+INF] | (absolutely-positive) | (+) |
Greater or equal to 0 | [0;+INF] | (positive) | (0+) |
Less than 0 | [-INF;0[ | (absolutely-negative) | (-) |
Less or equal to 0 | [-INF;0] | (negative) | (-0) |
In an embedded result-set or an external CSV file, you can freely mix the previous notations.
You can also avoid the usage of the -INF or +INF by using the short-cut version making usage of symbols greater and less than.
Description | numeric short-cut |
---|---|
Greater than 500 | (>500) |
Greater or equal to 500 | (>=500) |
Less than 500 | (<500) |
Less or equal to 5000 | (<=500) |
The two notations bellow are identical to represent all values greater than 500.
Usage of following symbols (between brackets) is also understood by NBi: < , <= , > , >= . Note that for symbols < , <= you’ll need to make usage of the CDATA container to avoid misunderstanding with an opening xml element.