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02 · Conditional cells

Scenario​

Show different cell values based on the row's data. Two patterns: pick between two values (IF), and substitute when the source is missing (IFEMPTY).

IF — pick between two values​

{{ IF([Renewal] > 10000, "Priority", "Standard") }}
{{ IF([Region] = "Seoul", "Local", "Remote") }}
{{ IF([Owner] != "", [Owner], "Unassigned") }}

Comparison operators: =, !=, >, <, >=, <=. The third argument (the "else") is required — XTL has no implicit empty branch.

IFEMPTY — substitute for missing values​

{{ IFEMPTY([Owner], "Unassigned") }}
{{ IFEMPTY([Notes], "—") }}

IFEMPTY(value, fallback) returns fallback when value is empty (missing, null, or a whitespace-only string). Zero and false are NOT empty — use IF for those.

Truthiness rules (IF condition)​

  • Empty values (missing, whitespace-only string) are falsy.
  • The strings "0" and "false" are truthy — they are non-empty strings, period. To treat "0" as falsy, compare explicitly: IF([Amount] != "0", ...).
  • Number 0 and Boolean false are falsy.
  • Dates are always truthy.

Combine with & for derived text​

{{ "Tier-" & IF([Renewal] > 10000, "A", "B") & "-" & [Region] }}

& is string concatenation. Operands stringify via the canonical form (spec/language.md "Canonical String Form").

Notes​

  • = and != use XTL's comparison fallthrough: numeric on number-or-numeric-strings, Boolean on Booleans, timestamp on Dates, raw code-point order otherwise. No locale collation.
  • Nested IF works: IF(a, "X", IF(b, "Y", "Z")). Excel-familiar; deep nesting is hard to read — consider splitting into helper cells or pre-computing upstream.