Clarifying @IF

The @IF action interacts with multiple other actions: @ELSEIF, @ELSE and @ENDIF.

This page aims to clarify how to use these actions together.

Note: the examples use short texts for simplicity. Normally, the IF function would be preferred for such short text, while the @IF action would be used when the content is larger or contains formatting.

Let’s start with this example:

<# @IF(age > 30) #>
Older
<# @ELSE #>
Younger
<# @ENDIF #>

The basic idea of @IF is that you have a section of content that you want to display or hide based on whether a condition is respected or not. In this example, the age is either greater than 30, or it isn’t.

The content to hide or show is delimited by the @IF, @ELSEIF, @ELSE and @ENDIF actions.

The section for when the @IF’s condition is TRUE (respected) starts right after the @IF command and it goes on until the next @ELSEIF, @ELSE or @ENDIF action.

If you want to display a different section for when the @IF’s condition is FALSE (not respected), then that section starts after the @ELSE command.

In our example, if age is greater than 30, we display “Older”, otherwise we display “Younger”.

@ELSE is optional

You might not always have content to display when the condition is FALSE (not respected). In those situations, omit the @ELSE command entirely. For example:

<# @IF(age > 30) #>
Older
<# @ENDIF #>

So if the condition doesn’t match, then nothing gets displayed.

Nesting @IF

You can nest a @IF (and the associated @ELSEIF, @ELSE, @ENDIF) inside any part of another @IF.

<# @IF(age > 30) #>
Older <# @IF(retired) #>and retired<# @ENDIF #>
<# @ELSE #>
Younger <# @IF(at_school) #>and still at school<# @ENDIF #>
<# @ENDIF #>

In that case, the commands following the inner @IF are used by the inner @IF until the @ENDIF is reached, at which points, commands will be associated with the outer @IF.

Note: Again, for such short content, using IF functions would normally be simpler than the @IF actions, but this is an example of @IF.

A shortcut: @ELSEIF

Consider this example:

<# @IF(age > 30) #>
Older
<# @ELSE #>
<# @IF(age > 20) #>
In the middle
<# @ELSE #>
Younger
<# @ENDIF #>
<# @ENDIF #>

Now, if the age is not greater than 30, then there is a second condition. We display “In the middle” if the age is greater than 20, “Younger” otherwise.

Only having a nested @IF in a @ELSE, such as in the example above, happens often. To make this easier to write and read, the @ELSEIF action is a shortcut for a @ELSE directly followed by a @IF. It takes a condition, just like @IF.

Here is the same example rewritten with @ELSEIF:

<# @IF(age > 30) #>
Older
<# @ELSEIF(age > 20) #>
In the middle
<# @ELSE #>
Younger
<# @ENDIF #>

The way this works is that the first condition to be true is the one whose content will be displayed. If none of the conditions are true, then the @ELSE’s content (if there is a @ELSE), will be displayed.

There can be multiple @ELSEIF:

<# @IF(age > 30) #>
Older
<# @ELSEIF(age > 20) #>
In the middle
<# @ELSEIF(age > 10) #>
Younger
<# @ELSE #>
Too young
<# @ENDIF #>

Order of the actions

The actions must always be written in this order:

1. Start with @IF
2. All the @ELSEIF (if any) go after the @IF.
3. @ELSE (which is optional) goes after all @IF and @ELSEIF.
4. @ENDIF goes last.

Other things to read

There is also a tutorial covering conditional content which speaks about all this differently. This may be worth a read: Conditional content