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New Participant
Oct 14, 2026 9:41 AM UTC
Question

Best Practices for Using Constants and Expression Rules in Appian

My question is: If I want to check whether a student has passed based on a minimum passing mark, should I store the passing mark in a constant and use that constant in an expression rule?

    4 replies

    mathieud0001
    Genius
    Oct 14, 2026 10:27 AM UTC

    Hard to know without more details but generally yes, you’ll want to store that information in a constant and create an expression rule (i.e. isPassingGrade).

    Inspiring
    Oct 14, 2026 2:44 PM UTC

    It's hard to recommend the best approach without knowing the full requirements, but yes, you can store the passing mark in a constant and use an expression rule to determine whether the student has passed. However, if the passing mark is configurable or expected to change frequently, I would recommend storing it in a database table and providing an admin interface to manage it. This way, authorized users can update the value without requiring application changes or deployments.

    If it's a fixed value that rarely changes, using a constant should be fine.

    surbhik1864
    New Participant
    Oct 15, 2026 8:12 AM UTC

    Store the passing mark in a constant and reference it in an expression rule like, rather than hardcoding the number. This gives you one place to update it.

    The exception: if the passing mark varies by course or exam, or business users need to change it without a deployment, store it in a database reference table instead.

    stefanhelzle0001
    Brainy
    Oct 15, 2026 8:16 AM UTC

    Probably yes.