All Products
Search
Document Center

MaxCompute:IF

Last Updated:Dec 13, 2025

The IF function evaluates testCondition. If the condition is true, the function returns the value of valueTrue. Otherwise, it returns the value of valueFalseOrNull.

Syntax

IF(<testCondition>, <valueTrue>, <valueFalseOrNull>)

-- Standard example.
-- Returns 200.
SELECT IF(1 = 2, 100, 200);

Parameters

  • testCondition: Required. The BOOLEAN expression to evaluate.

  • valueTrue: Required. The value to return if the testCondition expression evaluates to True.

  • valueFalseOrNull: Required. The value to return if the testCondition expression evaluates to FALSE or NULL.

    • The data types of valueTrue and valueFalseOrNull must be the same.

Return value

The return value has the same data type as the valueTrue or valueFalseOrNull parameter.

Examples

Example 1: Basic conditional check.

-- Returns 200.
SELECT IF(1=2, 100, 200); 

-- Returns 'active'.
SELECT IF(LENGTH('abc') > 2, 'active', 'inactive');

Example 2: If testCondition is NULL, it is treated as FALSE. The function then returns the value of valueFalseOrNull.

-- Returns 'valueB'.
SELECT IF(NULL, 'valueA', 'valueB');

-- Returns NULL.
SELECT IF(FALSE, 42, NULL);

Related functions

The IF function is an Other function. For more information about functions for different business scenarios, see Other functions.