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TSTool / Command / If

Overview

The If command evaluates a conditional statement and if true will result in the commands between If and matching EndIf being executed. Matching Name parameter for the If and EndIf commands defines a block of commands. Currently, there is no “else if” or “else” syntax and nested If commands must be used to evaluate complex conditions. The syntax for the conditional statement is restricted to a simple comparison:

Value1 operator Value2

The values can be integers, floating point numbers, Boolean values, strings, or processor properties specified with ${Property} that evaluate to primitive types. The operator is one of the following (more functionality will be added in the future). For Booleans, False is less than True. For strings, A is less than Z, etc.

  • <
  • <=
  • >
  • >=
  • == (use this to test equality – do not use a single equal sign)
  • !=
  • contains (only for string comparison)
  • !contains (only for string comparison)

All nested If commands must evaluate to true to execute the commands within the deepest level of nesting. Some commands, including SelectTimeSeries and CopyTable set a property that can be used for checks, for example to see if the number of rows in a table or time series in a list is non-zero. It is helpful to use the Message command to print a message to the log file and help control whether a warning or failure status should occur as the result of the If. The SetProperty command can also be used to set a property to indicate the result of evaluating an If block.

Future enhancements to the If command may include:

  • Test whether a file exists (or not).
  • Test whether a time series value is non-missing.
  • Compare time series properties with other properties and values.

Command Editor

The following dialog is used to edit the command and illustrates the command syntax.

If

If Command Editor Showing Conditions Test (see also the full-size image)

The following illustrates checking for a property to make sure it is defined and not empty. This is useful for detecting logic and data problems.

If Property Defined

If Command Editor Showing Check for Whether a Property is Not Defined or is Empty (see also the full-size image)

The following illustrates how to detect if a time series exists. This is useful for executing only blocks of commands that operate on the time series (and avoiding those steps and related warning/failure messages when the time series does not exist).

If Time Series Exists

If Command Editor Showing Check for Time Series Existance (see also the full-size image)

Command Syntax

The command syntax is as follows:

If(Parameter="Value",...)

Command Parameters

Parameter                      Description Default                 
Name
required		 The name of the If command, which will be matched with the name of an EndIf command to indicate the block of commands in the if condition. None - must be specified.
Condition
required		 The conditional statement to evaluate. Condition and/or TSExists and/or PropertyIsNotDefinedOrIsEmpty must be specified.
CompareAsStrings If True, the comparison will be done as strings even if the values could be treated as numbers or Booleans. False
PropertyIsNotDefinedOrIsEmpty Causes the command to evaluate to True if the specified parameter (a property name) is not defined or has a value of null, NaN (floating point numbers), or is an empty string. Condition and/or TSExists and/or PropertyIsNotDefinedOrIsEmpty must be specified.
TSExists Causes the command to evaluate to True if the specified time series does exist. Specify a TSID or alias to match. Can specify using ${Property}. Condition and/or TSExists and/or PropertyIsNotDefinedOrIsEmpty must be specified.

Examples

See the automated tests.

Example to Check Number Against Property

# Some previous command will have set an error count
If(Name="ExampleIf",Condition="${ErrorCount} > 1")
  Message(Message="Have ${ErrorCount} errors.  Stopping.")
  Exit()
EndIf(Name="ExampleIf")

Example to Check that a Sample Size is Sufficient

The following example illustrates combinations of If and Message commands (indentation indicates line continuation). In these examples processor properties are used to provide condition values.

# Test evaluating an integer condition where integer is supplied by property
StartLog(LogFile="Results/Test_If_IntegerProperty_LT_IntegerProperty.TSTool.log")
SetProperty(PropertyName="SampleSizeRequired",PropertyType=Integer,PropertyValue="10")
SetProperty(PropertyName="SampleSize",PropertyType=Integer,PropertyValue="5")
If(Name="SampleSizeCheck",Condition="${SampleSize} < ${SampleSizeRequired}")
Message(Message="Sample size (${SampleSize}) is less than required ${SampleSizeRequired}",CommandStatus=WARNING)
EndIf(Name="SampleSizeCheck")
If(Name="SampleSizeCheck2",Condition="${SampleSize} > ${SampleSizeRequired}")
Message(Message="Sample size (${SampleSize}) is >= than required ${SampleSizeRequired}",CommandStatus=WARNING)
EndIf(Name="SampleSizeCheck2")
If(Name="SampleSizeCheck3Outer",Condition="${SampleSize} < ${SampleSizeRequired}")
If(Name="SampleSizeCheck3InnerTrue",Condition="${SampleSize} == 5")
Message(Message="Sample size (${SampleSize}) is == 5",CommandStatus=WARNING)
EndIf(Name="SampleSizeCheck3InnerTrue")
If(Name="SampleSizeCheck3InnerFalse",Condition="${SampleSize} != 6")
Message(Message="Sample size (${SampleSize}) is not == 6",CommandStatus=WARNING)
EndIf(Name="SampleSizeCheck3InnerFalse")
EndIf(Name="SampleSizeCheck3Outer")

Troubleshooting

See Also