Why there is no way to add variable declaration inside rules?

[vec715]

Writing rules always limited to working only with the provided set of structures and their fields. When some function should accept some arguments we need to define them directly e.g.:

rule ... {
    when
        ...
    then
       fn.SendAlert("title", "body", "[email protected]", fn.CalculateSomethingX(), fn.CalculateSomethingY());
}

But it would be much much easier to read & maintain the rules if we can have a variable declaration:

rule ... {
    when
        ...
    then
       var x = fn.CalculateSomethingX(...);
       var y = fn.CalculateSomthingY(...);
       var receivers = ["[email protected]", "[email protected]"];
       var body = "very long long body here";
       fn.SendAlert("title", body, receivers, x, y);
}

Why this feature is unavailable? I wonder what type of limitations we have so there is no such a way to declare variables inside the rule?

[dkkb]

Well, it seems you can do this, but you may meet some interesting things, check this https://github.com/hyperjumptech/grule-rule-engine/issues/481

[newm4n]

I think, we are trying to create a Rule engine and not to create another programming language. Thats why the GRL tries to be simple, flexible yet strict in it self. I fear, introducing self defined variable in the rule script could introduce un-necessary complexity and whole new level of bugs.