# Help on decide statement

**URL:** <https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/help-on-decide-statement/61963>\
**Category:** Forum\
**Tags:** Adabas-Natural, Natural, Natural-on-Mainframes\
**Created:** [February 15, 2007, 12:40am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/help-on-decide-statement/61963 "2007-02-15T00:40:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jennifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@Jennifer](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Jennifer)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 12:40am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/help-on-decide-statement/61963/1 "2007-02-15T00:40:07Z")

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Can someone help interpret this for me:  
DECIDE ON EVERY VALUE OF TRANS.CAT(\*)  
VALUE ‘D’  
…  
VALUE ’ M’  
…

I’m unclear about how the (\*) affects the statement.

TIA,  
Jennifer

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**Author:** ![Jerome\_LeBlanc](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/jerome_leblanc/32/111_2.png) [@Jerome\_LeBlanc](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Jerome_LeBlanc)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 1:09am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/help-on-decide-statement/61963/2 "2007-02-15T01:09:35Z")

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Think of it this way:

```auto
IF CAT(*) = 'D'
```

is the same as:

```auto
IF CAT(1) = 'D'
OR CAT(2) = 'D'
OR CAT(3) = 'D'
...
```

i.e. If any occurence in the array matches ‘D’, the expression evaluates to TRUE.

You have to be careful with NE:

```auto
IF CAT(*) NE 'D'
```

is the same as:

```auto
IF CAT(1) NE 'D'
OR CAT(2) NE 'D'
OR CAT(3) NE 'D'
...
```

i.e. If any occurence in the array does not match ‘D’, the expression is TRUE. The only time where this evaluates to FALSE is if every occurence in the array contains ‘D’.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jennifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@Jennifer](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Jennifer)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 3:37am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/help-on-decide-statement/61963/3 "2007-02-15T03:37:31Z")

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Excellent example! Thanks!!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/help-on-decide-statement/61963/4 "2021-04-02T14:41:04Z")

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