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Logical expression – conditions and comparisons

The logical expression compares values and combines the comparisons with And and Or. It returns yes or no and is the building block of every condition in nexxcite: visibility of blocks, conditions of commands, validations, the branches of a case expression.

1. At a glance
Purpose Evaluates a condition made of comparisons, groups and And/Or
Typical use "Status is Closed", "Priority is High and (Category is Hardware or Network)"
Returns Yes/no (true / false)
Related Case (several outcomes), Queries (conditions on the records in the database)

2. Settings

The editor shows the condition as a tree. The top level is a group; groups can contain clauses and further groups.

Element Settings
Group "And" / "Or" – how the entries of the group are combined. The number at the left edge shows how many entries the group has.
Clause Left side (the value being tested), operator, right side (the value it is compared with)
Button Action
"Add clause" Adds a comparison to the group
"Add group" Adds a nested group – this is how brackets are written
Remove (minus icon) Removes the clause or group
"Move" menu "Move up", "Move down", "Move into group" (wraps the entry in a new group), "Move out of group"

Both sides of a clause are expressions: a field, a fixed value, a variable, another expression. The right side is hidden for the operators Empty and NotEmpty. A new clause starts with the operator Equals.

Operators

Operator True when
Equals Both sides are equal, ignoring upper and lower case
EqualsCased Both sides are equal, including upper and lower case
NotEquals The sides differ, ignoring case
NotEqualsCased The sides differ, including case
LessThan, LessThanOrEqual, GreaterThan, GreaterThanOrEqual Numerically when both sides are numbers, chronologically when both sides are dates, otherwise in text order (see section 5)
Like The left side matches the pattern on the right, ignoring case (see below)
NotLike The left side does not match the pattern
Empty The left side is empty
NotEmpty The left side has a value
In The left side is one of the values in the list on the right, ignoring case
NotIn The left side is none of the values in the list on the right

3. Behaviour

  • And: every entry of the group must be true. Or: one true entry is enough. Evaluation stops as soon as the result is certain, so later entries are not evaluated.
  • Groups are brackets. "A and (B or C)" needs a group for "B or C". Without it, all three are combined with the same gate and the condition means something else.
  • An empty group is true. A logical expression without any clause is always true.
  • When a clause compares a yes/no value, the other side is converted to yes/no as well (1 and true count as yes).

Patterns for Like

Character Meaning
* or % Any text, also none
_ Exactly one character
[abc], [a-c] One character from the set or range
[^abc] One character not in the set

The pattern must match the whole value. *error* means "contains error"; error alone only matches the value "error".

Lists for In and NotIn

The right side of In and NotIn should return a JSON array, for example ["Open","New"] – as a fixed value or as the result of an expression (the rules SplitStringJsonArray and the aggregation Select return such lists).

  • A right side that is not a JSON array counts as a list with that one value.
  • An empty right side is an empty list: In is then false, NotIn true.

Empty values

Empty is true for no value, an empty text, the empty id and a date of 1 January 1753 or earlier (see Expressions – overview, section 5). To test for "no value", always use Empty rather than comparing with an empty text.

4. Examples

Simple condition: "Status" Equals Closed.

With brackets: Group "And" with

  1. "Priority" Equals High
  2. Group "Or" with "Category" Equals Hardware and "Category" Equals Network

List: "Status" In ["Open","In progress","Waiting"].

Contains: "Subject" Like *printer* is true for "Printer broken" and "New printer needed".

5. Limitations

  • Dates are compared as dates only when both sides are one: a date or date/time field, or a text that reads as a date (2026-10-20, 2026-10-20 14:30, 10/20/2026). A text that is no date – an empty value, a word – is compared as text. To compare a date with an empty field reliably, check the field with Empty first.
  • Text order (for LessThan and similar on text) follows a simple character order; it is not meant for sorting names in a language-specific way.