SSJS If & Switch
Deep dive into the two pillars of SSJS flow control
If Statements
The most popular way of handling conditional logic is with the if statement. It is universal, flexible, and easy to understand. By evaluating a condition, it allows your script to either execute or omit part of the code.
for (var customer in customers) {
if (customer.purchases > 2) {
marketingSegment.push(customer.email);
};
};
Basic if can be extended by adding optional else if for an additional condition with the different outcome or optional else for all scenarios not caught by above conditions.
for (var customer in customers) {
if (customer.purchases > 10) {
goldCustomerSegment.push(customer.email);
} else if (customer.purchases > 5) {
silverCustomerSegment.push(customer.email);
} else {
bronzeCustomerSegment.push(customer.email);
};
};
And, Or, Brackets
The if statement is even more powerful if you enhance your conditions with the ORs (||), ANDs (&&) and brackets:
for (var customer in customers) {
if (customer.purchases <=2 || customer.lastPurchaseDate <= new Date('2019-12-31')) {
reengagementCampaignSegment.push(customer);
} else if (customer.purchases > 2 && customer.lastPurchaseDate > new Date('2019-12-31')) {
upsellCampaignSegment.push(customer);
};
};
Boolean evaluation
You can use boolean values of variables/methods/functions to omit the operator in your condition and make the code more readable.
for (var customer in customers) {
var competitionUser = customer.email.includes('@competition.com');
if (competitionUser) { // if comptetitionUser is true, block will be exectuted
blocklist.push(customer);
};
};
Flip Booleans with Bang
Bang symbol (!) can be used to flip the value of a boolean:
for (var customer in customers) {
var competitionUser = customer.email.toLowerCase().indexOf('@competition.com') >= 0;
if (!competitionUser) { // if not competition user, execute content
campaignSegment.push(customer);
};
};
Bang not only functions as a NOT operator but also changes truthy and falsy values into an (opposite) boolean.
Falsy values in JavaScript are: false, 0, empty string "", null, undefined, NaN.
All other possible values are considered truthy.
This is very useful, as it allows you to leverage boolean evaluation on truthy values:
for (var customer in customers) {
var helloPersonalization;
if (customer.firstName) { // if customer.firstName has characters, it is truthy
helloPersonalization = customer.firstName;
} else if (!customer.firstName) { // if it does not have any characterrs, it will be falsy
helloPersonalization = 'Valued Customer';
};
};
To make it clear - above code is very "dirty" and can be written much better (for example without else if by applying default value on variable initialization). You will find an example of how to write it better later.
You can level up the use of this feature by leveraging double bang !! to convert truthy/falsy value into an (appropriate) boolean.
var isOptedIn = !!optInDate;
If Shorthand
For simple, one-line if statements, there is also a one-line shorthand:
if (isOptedIn) sendEmail(emailAddress, emailID);
You could probably use simple if conditions for the whole logic of your code. But you shouldn't. There are some interesting and useful options worth checking out.
Ternary
If a simple if statement has only two possible outcomes depending on a condition, ternary is more straightforward and readable alternative. Based on previous example, instead of:
for (var customer in customers) {
var helloPersonalization;
if (customer.firstName) {
helloPersonalization = 'Hello' + customer.firstName;
} else if (!customer.firstName) {
helloPersonalization = 'Hello Valued Customer';
};
};
we can use a clean ternary:
for (var customer in customers) {
var helloPersonalization = customer.firstName ? 'Hello' + customer.firstName : 'Hello Valued Customer';
};
Instead of 6 lines of code, we have 1. Awesome! But how does it work? The ternary structure looks like this: variable = condition ? valueIfTrue : valueIfFalse;. So in the example above, if the customer.firstName is not empty (is truthy), it will be pushed as the value of helloPersonalization. If it is empty, the default value will be assigned instead.
The ternary has more uses not than just the standard if statement. It is awesome text customization with pseudo-interpolation:
Write('You are ' + (isOptedIn ? 'opted in' : 'not opted in'));
Ternaries are not limited to variables and strings. They can also run functions or debugging:
!isLoggedIn ? redirectToLogInPage() : null;
Shortcircuiting
We already covered using OR || + AND && operators. But by using them correctly, you can optimize the speed of your scripts greatly.
Shortcircuiting OR
OR evaluates to true if at least one value is equal to true.
If the left side of the OR evaluates to true, we know for sure that the whole statement is true. Checking the value of the right side is not needed. And JavaScript knows this too.
Thanks to it, if we want to use an OR statement and we suspect that one side is much faster than the other, we should use it on the left side.
for (var customer in customers) {
if (customer.lastPurchaseDate < new Date('2019-12-31') || complexRequestToEcommerceAPI() === false) {
exclusionSegment.push(customer);
};
};
Left side in the above example is a straightforward and quick check, as all parts of the condition are already within the script. The right side, however, might take seconds to get the data from other system and calculate the value. If the lastPurchaseDate is before our threshold, we don't have to waste time and API calls. A win for us, and a win for the customer waiting for the script to finish.
Shortcircuiting AND
Similar logic can be applied to AND operator. && evaluates to true only if both sides are true. If we have a more straightforward condition or we suspect it might frequently evaluate to false, we should put it on the left side. If it ends up being falsy, JavaScript won't be checking the right side of the AND operator.
if (isValidEmail(login) && isValidPassword(password) && isValidPair(email, password)) {
var isLoggedIn = true;
};
In the above example, we are doing multiple tests ordered from the easiest to the hardest. Thanks to it, if the login is not in the correct format for an email address, we won't have even to check the password or query our encrypted database with a hashed version of the password.
Switch Statement
Sometimes you have many options for a single condition. You could write it with a simple if, but the switch might be much more readable than a long list of else if statements with nearly identical conditions. In SSJS switch is especially useful for centralized handler page you query from multiple front ends.
function errorDescription(error) {
switch (error.code) {
case 400:
return 'Bad Request';
case 401:
return 'Unauthorized';
case 403:
return 'Forbidden';
case 404:
return 'Not Found'
default:
return 'Unknown Error';
};
};
Some things to remember when working with a switch:
- If multiple cases fulfil the condition, a
switchwill execute the first from the top. - You can assign multiple cases to the same code block:
var outcome;
switch (a, operation, b) {
default:
case '+':
case 'plus':
outcome = a + b;
break;
case '-':
case 'minus':
outcome = a - b;
break;
};
- Use either
breakstatement to end each case or use thereturnstatement if in function. Otherwise, the switch will also execute all below cases until it encounters one of the above keywords (or hits the last scenario). Of course, there might be some edge scenarios where you want this exact behaviour to happen. - Always use
defaultstatement, even if you believe it will never be triggered (not required, but best practice). Use it to handle the scenario you haven't considered. - Cases in a
switchare using strict comparison (===) for evaluation, so the provided value must match the case not only by value but also by type. A string value of'0'won't trigger an integer0case.