Special and generic values

Special values

When comparing two result-sets, you have to compare some special values such as null, empty strings or true/false. NBi uses alias to understand these values from Csv files or from embedded result-sets.

Null

If you want to specify a cell with a null value, simply write an empty tag or specify (null) in your tag.

<cell/>
or
<cell></cell>
or
<cell>(null)</cell>

Empty string

If you want to specify that an empty value (string with length of 0 characters) will be a valid result, you can specify “(empty)” in your xml element.

<cell>(empty)</cell>

Blank

If you want to specify that an empty value (string with length of 0 characters) or a string only containing whitespaces (space, tab, carriage return or line feed ) or a null value will be a valid result, you can specify “(blank)” in your xml element.

<cell>(blank)</cell>

Boolean values

The values true, false, yes and no are valid to express a boolean. Case is not sensitive, meaning that True or YES are also valid values.

<cell>true</cell>
<cell>false</cell>
<cell>yes</cell>
<cell>no</cell>

Generic values

A generic value is a substitute for a set of values. With generic values, NBi offers some flexibility to compare your result-set’s cells to a range of values.

Not null

If you want to specify that any non-null value will be a valid result, you can specify “(value)” in your xml element

<cell>(value)</cell>

Null or not null

If you want to specify that any value will be a valid result, you can specify “(any)” in your xml element

<cell>(any)</cell>

If you want to go further with imprecise values, you should also read the documentation for [intervals].

Back

Next