Using the IF THEN ELSE function

The IF THEN ELSE function is used in calculations in several different ways, including filtering, grouping, bucketing, and relabeling results. The IF THEN ELSE function tests a condition, then returns a value based on the result of that condition.

The IF THEN ELSE expression can be defined in two ways:

• IF (boolean condition) THEN (true value) ELSE (false value) ENDIF: The returned result will depend on whether the condition passes or fails.
• IF (boolean condition) THEN (true value) ENDIF: The returned result will always be the true result. If the conditional expression fails, results will be empty.

This article contains the following topics:

• Grouping your results
• Filtering your results
• Nesting multiple IF THEN ELSE functions

Grouping your results

You can use the IF THEN ELSE function to group or bucket your results. This enables you to relabel, exclude, or segment results to indicate higher or lower values. When you combine grouping and filtering together, you can highlight results by individual values.

This section shows how to relabel your results based on the conditional expression's outcome.

Labeling your grouped results

You can use the IF THEN ELSE function to apply different labels to your results, depending on the outcome of your conditional expression. For example, you can use IF THEN ELSE to label whether results are above or below a metric's target. This can be useful for quickly identifying if your headline number surpassed a goal.

This example uses the IF THEN ELSE function to indicate whether an agent was above or below the targeted first reply time. You can duplicate this example using any attribute, metric, and target.

To label results based on first reply time

1. In the Calculations () menu, click Standard calculated attribute.
2. Under Functions, click Add.
3. Give your calculated attribute a name like First reply time test.
4. From the list of functions, choose IF THEN ELSE.
5. Double-click _boolean_condition to highlight it.
6. Select a metric from the Select a field drop-down list or type in the metric name. This example uses SUM(First reply time (min)).
7. Type in the greater than symbol (>) and your target amount.
8. For _value_if_true enter "Over" in double quotes.
   Note: You can also substitute in elements or other labels. For example, you could select your Invoice Number attribute for your _value_if_true, to view the invoice numbers for the values with revenue above 100,000.
9. For your _value_if_false enter "Under" in double quotes.

   

10. In Computed from, select the attribute you are using in your query. If you do not select an attribute, the calculation will be measured against the total.
11. Click Save.
12. Click Add in any attribute panel.
13. Choose your attribute from the attributes drop-down list.

Filtering your results

You can filter your results with IF THEN ELSE by removing the ELSE statement. When you remove the false parameter, your query will only list the true results. In most cases, it is easier to add attributes to the Filters section of the query, but if you want to calculate results before processing or perform unique calculations, you can use this method.

This section includes the following examples:

• Filtering results by metric
• Filtering results by attribute

Filtering results by metric

You can filter your query to only show results that are higher or lower than a specified metric value. For example, you can limit your results to only display assignee names with a first reply time over 10 minutes. Follow the same steps as the labeling example above, but with this formula:

IF (SUM(First reply time (min))>10 THEN [Assignee name] ENDIF

When you add the attribute to your query, only the assignees with a first reply time over 10 will be displayed.

Filtering calculations by attribute

Along with filtering results based on a metric, you can also filter calculations to a specific attribute value. This formula is useful if you want to perform calculations on one attribute value and show the original metric results, or perform different calculations on the other values.

The example below calculates the number of replies per ticket for the support ticket tag, but you can duplicate this example using any attribute value and calculation.

To limit calculations to an attribute value

1. In the Calculations () menu, click Standard calculated metric.
2. Name your calculated metric.
3. Under Functions, click Add.
4. From the list of functions, choose IF THEN ELSE.
5. Double-click _boolean_condition to highlight it.
6. Select the attribute containing the restricting value from the Select a field drop-down list or type in the attribute name. This example uses Ticket tags .
7. Type in an equal sign (=) and the attribute value in "double quotes". This example uses ="support".

   This conditional expression will restrict your calculation to the entered attribute value.

   

8. In _value_if_true enter your calculation.
9. Delete ELSE and value_if_false. You can use value_if_false to provide an alternative formula for results when your expression fails. This example does not use a false option, so the ELSE statement is deleted.

   

10. Click Save.
11. In the Metrics panel, click Add, then choose the calculated metric to add to your query.

Nesting multiple IF THEN ELSE functions

If you are using more than one ELSE IF statement in your formula, you can use ELIF to simplify your expression. For example, if you are trying to show different numbers when your first reply time is greater than 10, equal to 10, or less than 10, you could use the ELIF expression to avoid writing multiple ELSE IF statements.

The conditional expression for this example would look like the formula below:

IF (SUM(First reply time (min))>10 THEN 1
ELIF (SUM(First reply time (min))=10) THEN 2
ELIF (SUM(First reply time (min))<10) THEN 3
ENDIF 

Nesting multiple conditional IF THEN ELSE statements can be useful for creating several different groups or filtering by different conditional expressions. If you need to write several conditional expressions, you can use the SWITCH function (see Adding multiple conditional expressions with SWITCH).