How to write multi-line condition in if #25641

kei-yamazaki · 2020-08-21T07:48:46Z

kei-yamazaki
Aug 21, 2020

I used '>' to describe a multi-line condition in if.

I thought this would work as expected, but the combination of '>' and '${{ }}' seems to work strangely.

Below is the workflow created for confirmation.

name: condition-tests
on:

push:

branches: [ master ]
jobs:

test:

runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: test1
  run: echo hoge
  if: ( 'a' == 'a' )

- name: test2
  run: echo hoge
  if: ( 'a' == 'b' )

- name: test3
  run: echo hoge
  if: &gt;
    'a' == 'a'

- name: test4
  run: echo hoge
  if: &gt;
    'a' == 'b'

- name: test5
  run: echo hoge
  if: &gt;
    ${{ 'a' == 'a' }}

- name: test6
  run: echo hoge
  if: &gt;
    ${{ 'a' == 'b' }}

And the execution result is this.

image434×734 20.6 KB

I thought that the last test6 was skipped, but it is not actually skipped.

I think that there is something wrong with the Parser in GitHub Actions when I combine '>' and '${{ }}'. Is my workflow something syntactically wrong ?

Answered by BrightRan

Aug 21, 2020

@kei-yamazaki,

you need to use the symbol ‘|’ to set the multi-line condition.
For example:

jobs:
  job1:
    if: |
      github.event_name == 'push' ||
      (github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.head_ref == 'master')

Here is a same topic as reference:

<a href="https://github.community/t/github-action-combining-if-condition-or-writing-it-in-multiple-lines/116903/2">Github action combining if condition or writing it in Multiple lines</a> <a class="badge-wrapper  bullet" href="/c/code-to-cloud/github-actions/41"><span class="badge-category-parent-bg" style="background-color: #6a737d;"></span><span class="badge-category-bg" style="background-color: #2188ff;"></span><span style="…

View full answer

BrightRan · 2020-08-21T07:55:12Z

BrightRan
Aug 21, 2020

@kei-yamazaki,

you need to use the symbol ‘|’ to set the multi-line condition.
For example:

jobs:
  job1:
    if: |
      github.event_name == 'push' ||
      (github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.head_ref == 'master')

Here is a same topic as reference:

<a href="https://github.community/t/github-action-combining-if-condition-or-writing-it-in-multiple-lines/116903/2">Github action combining if condition or writing it in Multiple lines</a> <a class="badge-wrapper  bullet" href="/c/code-to-cloud/github-actions/41"><span class="badge-category-parent-bg" style="background-color: #6a737d;"></span><span class="badge-category-bg" style="background-color: #2188ff;"></span><span style="" data-drop-close="true" class="badge-category clear-badge" title="Discussion and questions about GitHub Actions—automation for all of your development workflows, now with world-class CI/CD.">GitHub Actions</span></a>

@uditgaurav, You can write like as the following: - name: Running all tests if: | startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '/run-e2e-all') || startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '/run-e2e-first-test') || startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '/run-e2e-second-test') || startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '/run-e2e-third-test') || startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '/run-e2e-fourth-test') || startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '/run-e2e-fifth-test') || startsW…

Note: if you use “${{ }}” to surround the condition, this will not work.

1 reply

andyfeller Aug 12, 2022

The use of pipes | for multi-line YAML values is covered in YAML specification for block style productions.

kei-yamazaki · 2020-08-21T08:23:09Z

kei-yamazaki
Aug 21, 2020
Author

@brightran,
Thank you for your reply.

Is it a specification that doesn’t work when using “|” and “${{ }}” together?
If so, I think it should be documented.
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/context-and-expression-syntax-for-github-actions#about-contexts-and-expressions

0 replies

BrightRan · 2020-08-21T08:29:02Z

BrightRan
Aug 21, 2020

@kei-yamazaki ,

Yes, I agree.
The documentation even does not mention using the ‘|’ symbol to declare a multi-line if conditional.

0 replies

smac89 · 2021-06-23T08:13:04Z

smac89
Jun 23, 2021

Just an FYI for anyone wondering:

Multiline condition works for assignment. So something like

jobs:
  job1:
    outputs:
      my-output: ${{ steps.get-latest-release.outcome == 'success' &&
                     steps.get-latest-dev.outcome == 'success' &&
                     (steps.get-latest-release.outputs.result != steps.get-latest-dev.outputs.result) }}

HTH

0 replies

frewilhelm · 2021-07-13T07:26:34Z

frewilhelm
Jul 13, 2021

[FYI to people that just found this discussion]

Note: if you use “ ${{ }} ” to surround the condition, this will not work.

In the meantime it seems to work to combine | and ${{ ... }} in multiline if-conditions (on GHE 3.0.10):

Example:

jobs:
  job_test:
    if: |
        ${{ github.event_name == 'push'
            || ( github.event_name == 'workflow_run'
                 && github.event.workflow_run.conclusion == 'success'
               ) }}

1 reply

chrisba11 Mar 5, 2024

I've found that this does not actually work for me. Here are my findings:

This works as expected:

    if: |
      !cancelled() && needs.deploy.result == 'success' && 
      needs.tf-apply.result != 'failure'

This also works as expected:

    if: ${{ !cancelled() && needs.deploy.result == 'success' && needs.tf-apply.result != 'failure' }}

This does not get skipped when the workflow is cancelled and will run even when the result of the deploy job is not 'success':

    if: |
      ${{ !cancelled() && needs.deploy.result == 'success' && 
      needs.tf-apply.result != 'failure' }}

existere · 2021-08-27T17:30:00Z

existere
Aug 27, 2021

fwilhelm92:

[FYI to people that just found this discussion]
In the meantime it seems to work to combine | and ${{ ... }} in multiline if-conditions (on GHE 3.0.10):

This did not work for me. In my case the first conditional was evaluated and did not throw an error but the second never was. In your case, having || would not throw an error either unless you tested worflow_run manually.

      - name: Set AWS Env
        if: |
          ${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/master' 
            && (!contains(github.event.head_commit.message, 'skip-release')
              )}}

However, @brightran 's example did work:

      - name: Set AWS Env
        if: |
          github.ref != 'refs/heads/master' 
            && !contains(github.event.head_commit.message, 'skip-release')

1 reply

byam Sep 20, 2022

thanks, it works for me ;)

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Aug 21, 2020
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