Hello,

I'm not sure if it is or would be possible to have an
if (a == 1) 'cool'
else if (a == 2) 'not so cool'
else if (a == 3) 'uncool'
else 'I don't know'

I know you can use "if(test,result_if_true,result_if_false)" but i seems to get complicated when you have more than one else part.

I triedbut EM told me
"Parentheses not balanced; Conditional processing; if(test,result_if_true,result_if_false)"
perhaps there is something missing.

vierundzwanzig-

I'm glad to see you're putting EM through its paces.

if/elseif/else clauses can be a pain to deal with in recursive descent parsers, so I didn't try to support them. Yes, when nested if(test,true,false) clauses get deep, they can be a bit of a pain to debug, but if you count parentheses, you can get them right pretty quickly.

Also, the error checker will tell you if you have extra right parentheses. So, unbalanced parentheses mean you're missing at least one right parentheses (perhaps I should update the documentation).

Regardless, you were missing a right parenthesis before the empty string at the end of the if().

Attached is a working version of your test.



And here is the corrected expression

Once we have a GUI for EM, I expect we'll try to support parenthesis matching - so if you select a parenthesis, it will highlight the matching one.

/Tom

Thank you, I added the missing parenthesis and it now works.

Parenthesis matching would be kind of nice. Even if the GUI isn't available now, would it be possible to check if the expression is correct when you leave/move out/hover out the text filed (or even before saving a group/question)? If you want to check if your expression works correctly you have to save the question first, then check if it's correct and if not to fix it.

Good ideas, vierundzwanzig.

I also think that we should extend the EM documentation by adding such forum examples and some .LSS files at the wiki. This should help other users a lot.

Good idea. I added a variant of vierundzwangig's example to the wiki here.

Thanks!

@others: If you find further examples, please extend the above wiki page.

I have a problem to with a nested if

if(calc_final=6.5, if(finalgrade_thesis= > calc_final, ceil(calc_final), floor(calc_final)), "test")

As you can see it is a test run. However it states I have a comma to much ( after the 6.5)

I have also tried the && function but in that case it states that the if function is not valid.

The calc_final and finalgrade_thesis are working and valid variables (fieldnames)

Hope you can help me out

The function is working in excel ( but then more extended for several situations.
See below
=ALS(I20=5.5;ALS(D15>=I20;AFRONDEN.NAAR.BOVEN(I20;0);AFRONDEN.NAAR.BENEDEN(I20;0));ALS(I20=6.5;ALS(D15>=I20;AFRONDEN.NAAR.BOVEN(I20;0);AFRONDEN.NAAR.BENEDEN(I20;0));ALS(I20=7.5;ALS(D15>=I20;AFRONDEN.NAAR.BOVEN(I20;0);AFRONDEN.NAAR.BENEDEN(I20;0));ALS(I20=8.5;ALS(D15>=I20;AFRONDEN.NAAR.BOVEN(I20;0);AFRONDEN.NAAR.BENEDEN(I20;0));ALS(I20=9.5;ALS(D15>=I20;AFRONDEN.NAAR.BOVEN(I20;0);AFRONDEN.NAAR.BENEDEN(I20;0));AFRONDEN(I20;0))))))

Please attach your survey or question group for testing.