What are conditions in Power Automate? Power Automate Conditions are the if clauses in Microsoft flows. Whenever you need to decide how to proceed within your flow based on one or multiple conditions, the Power Automate Condition action is your friend.
There is also a Power Automate if function which you can use to return a value based on one or multiple conditions. You might ask when to use the Power Automate if function and when to use Power Automate Conditions.
Conditions let you create two branches within your flow. One branch if the conditions is met and one if it is not. So whenever your flow should proceed in different ways based on your conditions, use conditions.
If function is perfect to assign values. For example, when you want to have a default value for an empty string. Check for emptiness, if empty return your default value.
Let’s learn how to set conditions in Power Automate.
How to use Power Automate Conditions
This step-by-step guide shows you how to use Power Automate conditions to evaluate the result of an approval. I kept it as simple as possible.
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Create a new Instant Cloud Flow with ‘Manually trigger a flow’
Create a new Power Automate Flow
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At a ‘Start and wait for an approval’ action to the flow
Add Start and wait for an approval action
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Configure Start and wait for an approval action: Approval type “Approve/Reject – First to respond”,Title “Can I borrow your car?” and Assigned To “User email”
Setup Start and wait for an approval action
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Add a Condition Control
Add a condition to flow
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Configure condition: Compare Outcome via is equal to ‘Approve’
Configuration of Power Automate Condition
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Do a test run and accept the approval. Expression result will be true.
Result Test Run
Comparisons
Tu understand how to configure a condition, it is good to understand which options you have. The Condition action provides the following comparison options to define your conditions.
Let’s take a look at each of them in action.
contains
A Power Automate contains condition lets you verify whether a string contains another string or an element is within an array.
String comparison
Note: Power Automate contains conditions are case-sensitive. [ABC contains A => true, but ABC contains a => false]
Array comparison
does not contain
A Power Automate does not contain condition lets you verify whether a string does not contain another string or an element is not within an array.
String comparison
Note: Power Automate does not contain conditions are case-sensitive. [ABC does not contain a => true, but ABC does not contain A => false]
Array comparison
is equal to
A Power Automate is equal to condition lets you verify whether a is equal to b. The most common usage is on strings and numbers.
String comparison
Note: Power Automate is equal to conditions are case-sensitive. [ABC equal to ABC => true, but ABC equal to Abc => false]
Number comparision
is not equal to
A Power Automate is not equal to condition lets you verify whether a is not equal to be. The most common usage is on strings and numbers.
String comparison
Note: Power Automate is not equal to conditions are case-sensitive. [ABC is not equal to Abc=> true, but ABC is not equal to ABC=> false]
Number comparision
is greater than
String comparison
Number comparison
is greater than or equal to
String comparison
Number comparison
is less than
String comparison
Number comparison
is less than or equal to
String comparison
Number comparison
starts with
A Power Automate starts with condition lets you verify whether a string starts with a given string or not.
String comparison
Note: Power Automate starts with conditions are NOT case-sensitive. [ABC does starts with a => true]
does not start with
A Power Automate does not start with condition lets you verify if a string not starts with a given string.
String comparison
Note: Power Automate does not start with conditions are NOT case-sensitive. [ABC does not start with a => false]
ends with
A Power Automate ends with condition lets you verify whether a string ends with a given string or not.
String comparison
Note: Power Automate ends with conditions are NOT case-sensitive. [ABC ends with c => true]
does not end with
A Power Automate does not end with condition lets you verify if a string does not end with a given string.
String comparison
Note: Power Automate does not end with conditions are NOT case-sensitive. [ABC does not end with c => false]
How To Add Multiple Conditions in Power Automate
Quite often one condition is not enough. As soon as you need to change date or number ranges, you need at least two conditions.
Fortunately, Power Automate Condition action lets you have multiple conditions. You simplify, click the ‘+ Add’ button at the bottom of the condition action. You can even decide, if these conditions should be connected by an And or an Or.
In case you don’t know:
- And means every condtion must evaluate to true, otherwise the condition is not met.
- Or means just one conditions needs to be true.
Okay, that’s good, but what if we want mix And and Or in our conditions and want to group conditions like we can do with brackets in programming? This is where Power Automate Condition Groups useful.
Power Automate Condition Grouping
First of all, I like to show you, how to add a Condition group. When you click on add, you select ‘Add group’.
Now let’s play with Power Automate Condition groups.
To express the following code with a Power Automate Condition.
If(
(age < 40 And income < 3000) Or
(age > 40 And age < 50 And income < 4000)
) doSomething()Utilize Condition groups like shown below:
Power Automate Condition Limits
There is a limitation of 10 conditions per Condition action. After the 10th condition, the add button gets inactive, as you can see in the picture.
You did not hear it from me, and I do not advise you to do so! But what happens, if you do this? :-).
Power Automate Condition Examples
Let’s learn how to use condition in Power Automate by taking a look at some examples.
if blank
length of array
date equals today
