Operators Overview

Complete reference of all built-in operators

Available Operators

Rule Engine JS includes 20+ built-in operators organized into 7 categories:

Comparison

6 operators

eq, neq, gt, gte, lt, lte

Logical

3 operators

and, or, not

String

4 operators

contains, startsWith, endsWith, regex

Array

2 operators

in, notIn

Numeric

1 operator

between

Special

2 operators

isNull, isNotNull

State

6 operators

changed, changedBy, changedFrom, changedTo, increased, decreased

Quick Reference

Comparison Operators

Operator	Description	Example
eq	Equals	{ eq: ['age', 18] }
neq	Not equals	{ neq: ['status', 'inactive'] }
gt	Greater than	{ gt: ['score', 90] }
gte	Greater than or equal	{ gte: ['age', 18] }
lt	Less than	{ lt: ['temperature', 100] }
lte	Less than or equal	{ lte: ['price', 50] }

Logical Operators

Operator	Description	Example
and	All conditions must be true	{ and: [rule1, rule2] }
or	At least one condition must be true	{ or: [rule1, rule2] }
not	Negates a condition	{ not: [rule] }

String Operators

Operator	Description	Example
contains	String contains substring	{ contains: ['name', 'John'] }
startsWith	String starts with prefix	{ startsWith: ['email', 'admin'] }
endsWith	String ends with suffix	{ endsWith: ['file', '.pdf'] }
regex	Matches regular expression	{ regex: ['email', '^[a-z]+@'] }

Array Operators

Operator	Description	Example
in	Value exists in array	{ in: ['admin', 'roles'] }
notIn	Value does not exist in array	{ notIn: ['banned', 'users'] }

Numeric Operators

Operator	Description	Example
between	Value is within range (inclusive)	{ between: ['age', [18, 65]] }

Special Operators

Operator	Description	Example
isNull	Value is null or undefined	{ isNull: ['optionalField'] }
isNotNull	Value is not null/undefined	{ isNotNull: ['requiredField'] }

State Change Operators (Stateful Engine Only)

Operator	Description	Example
changed	Value changed from previous evaluation	{ changed: ['status'] }
changedBy	Numeric value changed by amount	{ changedBy: ['price', 10] }
changedFrom	Changed from specific value	{ changedFrom: ['status', 'pending'] }
changedTo	Changed to specific value	{ changedTo: ['status', 'active'] }
increased	Numeric value increased	{ increased: ['temperature'] }
decreased	Numeric value decreased	{ decreased: ['stock'] }

Operator Syntax

All operators follow a consistent syntax pattern:

{
  operatorName: [argument1, argument2, ...]
}

Single-Argument Operators

// isNull - checks if field is null/undefined
{ isNull: ['optionalField'] }

// not - negates a condition
{ not: [{ eq: ['status', 'active'] }] }

Two-Argument Operators

// eq - equals comparison
{ eq: ['age', 18] }

// contains - substring check
{ contains: ['name', 'John'] }

// in - array membership
{ in: ['admin', 'roles'] }

Multi-Argument Operators

// and - combine multiple conditions
{ and: [
  { gte: ['age', 18] },
  { eq: ['role', 'admin'] },
  { in: ['write', 'permissions'] }
]}

// between - range check
{ between: ['age', [18, 65]] }

Using Rule Helpers

The Rule Helpers API provides a more readable way to build rules:

Direct JSON

const rule = {
  and: [
    { gte: ['age', 18] },
    { eq: ['role', 'admin'] },
    { contains: ['email', '@company.com'] }
  ]
};

Type Coercion

By default, operators perform type coercion for flexibility:

// These all pass with type coercion
{ eq: ['age', '25'] }      // Compares 25 == '25' (true)
{ gte: ['score', '90'] }   // Compares 95 >= '90' (true)
{ contains: ['code', 123] } // Converts 123 to string

// Strict mode disables coercion
const strictEngine = createRuleEngine({ strict: true });
{ eq: ['age', '25'] }      // Compares 25 === '25' (false)

Use strict mode in production for type safety: createRuleEngine({ strict: true })

Operator Composition

Operators can be nested and combined for complex logic:

// Complex nested rule
const rule = {
  and: [
    // Age check
    { between: ['age', [18, 65]] },

    // Role and permissions
    { or: [
      { eq: ['role', 'admin'] },
      { and: [
        { eq: ['role', 'editor'] },
        { in: ['publish', 'permissions'] }
      ]}
    ]},

    // Email validation
    { and: [
      { isNotNull: ['email'] },
      { regex: ['email', '^[^@]+@[^@]+\\.[^@]+$'] }
    ]}
  ]
};

Custom Operators

Extend the engine with custom business logic:

// Register custom operator
engine.registerOperator('isBusinessHours', (args, context) => {
  const now = new Date();
  const hour = now.getHours();
  const day = now.getDay();

  // Monday-Friday, 9 AM - 5 PM
  return day >= 1 && day <= 5 && hour >= 9 && hour < 17;
});

// Use like built-in operators
const rule = {
  and: [
    { isBusinessHours: [] },
    { eq: ['support.available', true] }
  ]
};

Custom operators work seamlessly with all built-in operators and the Rule Helpers API.

Performance Considerations

Operator Order

Place faster operators first in and conditions to fail early

rules.and(
  rules.eq('active', true),  // Fast
  rules.regex('email', pattern) // Slower
)

Avoid Deep Nesting

Deeply nested rules are harder to cache and slower to evaluate

// Prefer flat over deeply nested
rules.or(cond1, cond2, cond3)

Cache-Friendly Paths

Use consistent path names to maximize cache hits

// Good - consistent
rules.eq('user.email', value)

// Avoid - dynamic paths
rules.eq(`${prefix}.email`, value)

Batch Similar Rules

Group related rules for better cache utilization

const userRules = {
  isActive: rules.eq('status', 'active'),
  isAdmin: rules.eq('role', 'admin'),
  hasEmail: rules.isNotNull('email')
}

Next Steps

Comparison

Detailed comparison operators

Logical

Detailed logical operators

String

Detailed string operators

Array

Detailed array operators

State

Detailed state operators

Custom Operators

Create custom operators