Writing Conditional Expressions

A conditional expression assigns a value based on the result of a logical expression. The assigned value can be numeric or alphanumeric. A conditional expression takes the following form:

Reference: Operators Used in Conditional Expressions

Example: Supplying Values With Conditional Expressions Defining True or False Conditions

IF expression1 THEN expression2 [ELSE expression3]

Note:

• The expressions following THEN and ELSE must result in a format that is compatible with the format assigned to the field. Each of these expressions may itself be a conditional expression, although the expression following IF may not be an IF ... THEN ... ELSE expression (for example, IF ... IF ... ). If the expression following THEN is itself a conditional expression, it must be enclosed in parentheses, but after ELSE, this is not necessary.
• Conditional expressions can have up to 16 IF phrases.
• The keyword ELSE, followed by an expression, is optional. If you do not specify an ELSE condition, however, and the IF condition is not met, the value is taken from the last true condition.

Reference: Operators Used in Conditional Expressions

Conditional expressions operate on numeric, alphanumeric, and Boolean values and assign the result based on a conditional test. You can use the following operators in a conditional expression:

Operator	Description
IF	Establishes a conditional test.
THEN	Specifies the action to perform if the result of a conditional test is TRUE.
ELSE	Specifies the action to perform if the result of a conditional test is FALSE.

Example: Supplying Values With Conditional Expressions

This example calculates the values of a virtual field (BLANK_NAME) using a conditional expression; the following report evaluates the expression and displays the values of the virtual field accordingly.

BANK_NAME/A20 = IF BANK_NAME EQ ' ' THEN 'NONE'
ELSE BANK_NAME;

Example: Defining True or False Conditions

You can define a virtual field with a "true" condition and then refer to it as TRUE or FALSE in your report request.

For example, the report below evaluates a virtual field called MYTEST using the following expression:

MYTEST=(CURR_SAL GE 11000) OR (DEPARTMENT EQ 'MIS');

The report request then evaluates the condition set for MYTEST and displays the fields CURR_SAL and DEPARTMENT (sorted by EMP_ID) only if MYTEST is true.

Note: TRUE and FALSE conditions are valid only in the IF phrase.