Robot Task Activities - Conditions

The Conditions category contains activities that control the flow of a sequence based on the result of an evaluation.

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If (simple)

Compares a left operand and a right operand using the specified operator and value type, then executes either the Then body or the Else body based on the result.

Setting	Description
Left operand	The first value to compare. Supports variables.
Operator	The comparison to perform, for example Equal, NotEqual, Contains, GreaterThan, RegExMatch.
Right operand	The second value to compare. Supports variables.
Type	The data type used for the comparison, for example String, Int32, Double, DateTime, Boolean.
Then	Activities executed when the condition evaluates to true.
Else	Activities executed when the condition evaluates to false.

Either body may be left empty. Both operand fields accept VisualCron variables, so you can compare a value read from a list, a cell, or a previous activity's Result variable.

Using the RegExMatch operator

The RegExMatch operator compares the left operand against a regular expression supplied as the right operand, so the Then and Else blocks act on a match or no match condition. This is useful for validating data before it is used.

For example, to confirm that a date read from a data file is in MM-dd-yyyy format before feeding it into an application that only accepts that format:

Field	Value
Left operand	The date value, for example {USERVAR(lvDateReformat|GetCell|{RPALOOP(a381|Iterations)}|Date|false)}
Operator	RegExMatch
Right operand	(0[1-9]|1[0,1,2])-(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])-(19|20)\d{2}
Type	String

That expression matches:

• A two digit month from 01 to 12
• A - separator
• A two digit day from 01 to 31
• A - separator
• A four digit year beginning with 19 or 20, giving a range of 1900 to 2099

Records that match are processed in the Then block. Records that do not match fall through to the Else block, where they can be written to an exception log for manual correction. See Data Processing & Logging for the logging pattern.

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Switch

Evaluates a specified expression and executes the activity whose associated key matches the result of that evaluation. If no key matches, the Default activity is executed.

Setting	Description
Expression	The value to evaluate. Each case is matched against this result.
Default	The activity executed when no case key matches.
Add new case	Adds a case with a key and an activity to execute when the key matches.

Switch is a cleaner alternative to a chain of nested If activities when you are branching on one value with several known outcomes, such as a status code or a record type.

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Tips

• Set the Type field to match the data you are actually comparing. Comparing numbers as String produces unexpected results, for example "10" is less than "9".
• When comparing a Result variable from a previous activity, remember the value is the text True or False, so use String as the type and True as the right operand.
• Use the Display name property to describe what the condition tests, for example Check If Date Format Is Valid, rather than leaving it as If (simple).