Instruction and operand types in rate routine steps

In rate routine steps, you can specify a number of types for the instruction and operand fields. To distinguish the rate table type, rate tables appear with a table: prefix in the base configuration. The prefix table: precedes the name of the rate table in a rate routine step. The rate table prefix distinguishes rate tables from variables. Without the prefix, rate tables with no New Argument Source / Value appear similar to variables.

The following table shows which types are available for the instruction and operand fields.

Instruction types	Operand types	Prefix	Return value
Properties on the cost	Properties on the cost	Not specified	Any type
Parameters	Parameters		Any type
Variables	Variables	Not specified	Any type
Conditional instructions			Not applicable
	Conditional expressions		Boolean
Functions	Functions	Not specified	Instruction – void (function has no return value) Operand – Any type
	Rate tables	table:	String, integer, decimal, Boolean, or date
	Constants		Numeric, Boolean, string, or null
	Date constants		Date
	Typelist values		Typekey
	Scale		Numeric
Section comment			Not applicable

Some rate routines do not calculate properties on the cost, so these properties do not appear as choices. For more information, see Rate routines that do not calculate properties on the cost.

In the base configuration, only rate tables have a prefix specified. For properties on the cost, variables, functions, and rate tables, you can add or change the prefix that appears in the step. For more information, see Configure prefixes that identify types in rate routine steps.

Do not use a policy entity the Instruction target in a rate routine step

Do not use a entity that is part of the policy as the target of the Instruction column on the left side of a rate routine step. This requires that PolicyCenter update the policy branch. This is an unexpected use of rate routines. Rate routines are for calculating costs for a policy. They are not expected to make changes to the policy branch.

For example, in a parameter set you have a writable Vehicle parameter defined as entity.VehicleDriver type. This entity has a PolicyDriver property that is a foreign key to a PolicyDriver entity instance. In a rate routine that uses this parameter set, avoid specifying Vehicle.PolicyDriver as the target of an Instruction.