You can define or modify states for a decision, discrete chance, or controlled node by double-clicking the node and choosing the General tab of the Node Definition dialog.
Changing State Names
Alternative names of Yes and No are given by DPL for new decision nodes. Outcomes names of Low, Nominal, High are given by DPL for new discrete chance nodes. You may accept these default names or you may edit the state names however you like. To edit a state name, simply double-click on the state and type in the new name. After you have typed the new state name, press Enter. (You can change the default alternative/outcome names for all new nodes for the model by selecting File | Options | General.) You can use the arrow keys to move among the state names.
The total length of the state names of a single node cannot be more than 512 characters. If you attempt to save a set of state names that contains a blank state name, DPL will give you an error message and return to the dialog.
You may use blanks and other special characters in state names. If you run an analysis, DPL will convert these characters to the underscore character (_) in the output. If a state name does not begin with an alphabetic character, DPL will substitute a capital N for the first character. If the length of a state name is greater than 32 characters, the state name will be truncated in the output. For more information see identifiers.
Changing the Number of States
You can change the number of states using the Add, Insert, and Delete buttons. To delete a state, click on the state and click Delete. To insert a state, select an existing state and click Insert. DPL will insert a new state before the selected state, and prompt you to type the name for the new state. To create a new state positioned after the existing states, click the Add button. (Note: If you change the number of states for a discrete chance node and you have already entered data for the node, you will need to edit your node data. See Editing Node Data.)
When changing the number of states, remember that each decision and discrete chance node must have at least two defined states. In addition, if you add states to a node which has one or more non-symmetric instances in the decision tree, DPL will model the new state asymmetrically for those instances. You must then assign the correct next events to those instances.
Default States
You can designate one state of each decision or chance node to be the "default" state. One use of default states is in Excel-linked models when the structure of the tree is asymmetric. If DPL does not know which state a particular event is in for a particular path, DPL sends the information associated with default state to Excel. Defaults states are also used in Option Value Charts.
Versions: DPL Professional, DPL Enterprise, DPL Portfolio
See Also