Conditional Global Variables¶

Conditional Variables are pair type variables, which allow you to conditionally show or hide information on your pages based on criteria being met. Conditional variables have the same syntax available in PHP conditionals, which normally follows this form:

{if variable comparison-operator value}  Data between the tags that gets shown if the condition is met.  {/if}

Simple Conditionals¶

A conditional is considered “simple” if it is evaluating variables that are already available by the time the template parsing engine reaches the simple conditionals parsing stage (e.g. segment, embed, and global variables), the expression evaluates a single variable (i.e. contains no logical operators such as OR, AND), and the conditional does not make use of the else or elseif control structures. In short, a simple conditional will look very much like this:

{if username == "joe"}  <h1>Hi Joe!</h1>  {/if}

Note

If you are testing against a word, you should enclose the word in single or double-quotes. If you are testing against a number, then you do not need to use quotes.

Protected Characters¶

ExpressionEngine uses PHP to evaluate conditionals, and there are certain characters that must be protected in a variable so that they are not treated as PHP code. You should converting those characters into HTML entities or removing the character entirely. Here is the conversion list:

To evaluate	Use instead
“	"
\	\
$	$
(	(
)	)
{	remove
}	remove
\n (linebreaks)	remove
\r (carriage return)	remove

If you are comparing a variable against a value that might include parentheses, you should use the HTML entities for parentheses listed in the table above instead. For example, if you want the conditional to evaluate whether the screen name is John Smith (Owner), you would write the conditional like so:

{if screen_name == 'John Smith &#40;Owner&#41;'}

Advanced Conditionals¶

Any conditional that isn’t a simple conditional is considered an “advanced” conditional and is evaluated much later in the template parsing order. More advanced conditionals can use logical operators (ex: OR, AND) to compare multiple variables to multiple values. Consider this example:

{if username == "Joe" OR username == "Bob"}
    <h1>Hey, Joe or Bob!</h1>
{/if}

Or this example:

{if username != "Joe" AND username != "Bob"}
    <h1>Hey, people who are neither Joe nor Bob!</h1>
{/if}

Else and Elseif¶

You can use two additional control structures to help tailor your results:

{if:elseif}

And:

{if:else}

These work similar to standard PHP else and elseif constructs. Here is an example:

{if username == "Joe"}
        <h1>Hey, Joe! Where were you Tuesday?</h1>
{if:elseif username == "Bob"}
        <h1>Hey, Bob! Thanks for the tickets!</h1>
{if:else}
        <h1>Welcome to our site.</h1>
{/if}

In the above example, if the currently logged in user has the username of “joe” he receives the first message. If not, EE evaluates the second conditional for the username of “bob”. If the username is neither joe nor bob a default message is shown.

Note

Don’t be confused by the {if: prefix. This simply helps the parsing engine identify each control structure. The information to the right of the prefix is what determines which conditional you are using.

Operators¶

The following comparison and logical operators are allowed within conditionals:

Comparison Operators¶

You can use any of the following operators to compare a variable to a value:

Operator	Name
==	Equal
!=	Not Equal
<	Less than
<=	Less than or equal to
>	Greater than
>=	Greater than or equal to
<>	Not equal

Note

When comparing equality make sure to use two equal signs rather than one (e.g. ==).

Logical Operators¶

You can use the following operators to compare multiple variables to multiple values:

Operator	Name	Result
&&	And	TRUE if both conditions are TRUE.
\|\|	Or	TRUE if either condition is TRUE.
AND	And	TRUE if both conditions are TRUE.
XOR	Xor	TRUE if either condition is TRUE, but not both.
OR	Or	TRUE if either condition is TRUE.

Logical operators have a precedence that determines in what order the parts of a conditional are parsed. In the following advanced conditional the member_id and member_group parts of the conditional are compared first using &&, before their result is compared to the username part via OR.

{if member_id != '1' && member_group != "5" OR username == "Billy"} Hi! {/if}

So, if the member id of the site visitor is not 1 and their member group is not 5 and their username is Billy, they can view the data in the conditional. The table above lists the precedence of operators with the highest-precedence operators listed at the top of the table.

Parentheses in Conditionals¶

Like PHP, you can use parentheses to group parts of a conditional together to have the part of the conditional between the parentheses evaluate before being compared to the part of the conditional outside the parentheses. For example, in the code below, the two member group parts are evaluated first before their result is compared to the channel_id part of the conditional:

{if (member_id == '1' OR member_id == '2') && channel_id == '5'}

So, if the member id of the visitor is either 1 or 2, and they are viewing the channel with id of 5, then they can see the contents of that conditional.

Short Conditionals¶

Certain conditionals exist in a shortened form in order to improve template readability. These conditionals are usually checking to see if a certain thing is true or exists:

Global Conditionals¶

if group_id¶

{if group_id == '7'}  You're an "Editor"!  {/if}

You can test against the Member Group. This tests the Member Group ID number. The alternate {if member_group == ‘3’} version of this conditional should be used inside of {exp:channel:entries} tags.

if logged_in¶

{if logged_in}  Welcome back to the site!<br /> <a href="{path='LOGOUT'}">Logout</a>  {/if}

This tag pair will display content within the pair if the person viewing the page is currently a logged in member.

Note: This only tests whether or not someone is logged in. If you want to restrict a particular page based on the member group assignment you’ll do that in your Template preferences in the Control Panel.

if logged_out¶

{if logged_out}  You aren't a member or aren't logged in.<br /> <a href="{path='member/login'}">Login</a>  | <a href="{path='member/register'}">Register</a>  {/if}

This tag pair will display content within the pair if the person viewing the page is not currently a logged in member.

You’ll notice in the “logout” link above that a special path is used: {path=’LOGOUT’}. This is a special-case path value that will automatically render the correct path for someone to log out.

if member_group¶

{if member_group == '7'}  You're an "Editor"!  {/if}

You can test against the Member Group. This tests the Member Group ID number. This variable/conditional is identical to the group_id one available above. {member_group} will work correctly inside a {exp:channel:entries} tag, however.

if member_id¶

{if member_id == '147'}  Ooh, you're really special, Frank!!  {/if}

Test for the member ID of the currently logged in user.

if screen_name¶

{if screen_name == "Mr. Ed"}  Thanks for all your hard work on the site, Ed!  {/if}

You can test against the screen name of the currently logged in user.

if total_comments¶

{if total_comments < 1}  What??  No one has commented on my site at all?!?!  {/if}

Test against the total number of comments submitted for the entire site.

if total_entries¶

{if total_entries > 1000}  Yowza!  This is one hot site!  {/if}

Test against the total number of entries submitted for the entire site.

if segment_X¶

{if segment_3 == "private"}  You're seeing something private!  {/if}

You can test against one of the URL Segments that are available. The conditional should be replaced with the correct segment name. e.g. if you’re interested in URL Segment 3, then use {if segment_3}.

if username¶

{if username == "elvira"}  Hi, mom!  I know it's you!  {/if}

You can test against the username of the currently logged in user.

Alternative Syntax¶

In order to be able to use some member variables in conditionals inside a channel entries tag, which processes its own member information, it is necessary to use an alternative syntax. All of the member variables may be used in conditionals with the addition of the prefix “logged_in_”.

{exp:channel:entries channel="default_site"}
        {if logged_in_member_id == author_id}
                <p>You wrote this entry!</p>
        {/if}
{/exp:channel:entries}

A list of the available member variables that utilize this alternate syntax follows:

logged_in_member_id
logged_in_group_id
logged_in_group_description
logged_in_username
logged_in_screen_name
logged_in_email
logged_in_ip_address
logged_in_location
logged_in_total_entries
logged_in_total_comments
logged_in_private_messages
logged_in_total_forum_posts
logged_in_total_forum_topics

Conditional Global Variables¶

Simple Conditionals¶

Protected Characters¶

Advanced Conditionals¶

Else and Elseif¶

Operators¶

Comparison Operators¶

Logical Operators¶

Parentheses in Conditionals¶

Short Conditionals¶

Global Conditionals¶

if group_id¶

if logged_in¶

if logged_out¶

if member_group¶

if member_id¶

if screen_name¶

if total_comments¶

if total_entries¶

if segment_*X*¶

if username¶

Alternative Syntax¶

if segment_X¶