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Could someone help me understand why this formula throws an error?


SWITCH(1=1,TRUE,“Y”,FALSE,“N”)


Thanks.

TRUE and FALSE aren’t possible outcomes of the expression you are trying to evaluation (1=1). That’s why your formula there is failing.


If you put just 1=1 as a formula into a formula field, you’ll get a return value of 1, which is the numeric equivalent of true.


If you put just 1=2 as a formula into a formula field, you’ll get a return value of 0, which is the numeric equivalent of false.


However, Airtable’s SWITCH() function appears to not even be able to evaluate this correctly either:


SWITCH(

   1 = 1,

   1, "Y",

   0, "N"

)

Which is odd… but, a SWITCH() statement is really not the best option for a binary/boolean comparison anyhow – it’s a bit overkill, since it’s meant to handle more than just either/or outcomes for an expression.


You can get the outcome you want with a simple IF() statement:


IF(

   1 = 1,

   "Y",

   "N"

)

TRUE and FALSE aren’t possible outcomes of the expression you are trying to evaluation (1=1). That’s why your formula there is failing.


If you put just 1=1 as a formula into a formula field, you’ll get a return value of 1, which is the numeric equivalent of true.


If you put just 1=2 as a formula into a formula field, you’ll get a return value of 0, which is the numeric equivalent of false.


However, Airtable’s SWITCH() function appears to not even be able to evaluate this correctly either:


SWITCH(

   1 = 1,

   1, "Y",

   0, "N"

)

Which is odd… but, a SWITCH() statement is really not the best option for a binary/boolean comparison anyhow – it’s a bit overkill, since it’s meant to handle more than just either/or outcomes for an expression.


You can get the outcome you want with a simple IF() statement:


IF(

   1 = 1,

   "Y",

   "N"

)

Thank you, I did have a more complex use in mind.

It does seem though, that SWITCH does not accept logical conditions in this manner.

A very common coding pattern is to pass a "true" to switch and test multiple conditions to run the first to return true, but I couldn't get it to work on airtable formulas:

 

switch(TRUE(),
REGEX_MATCH(data,regex1), 'one matches',
REGEX_MATCH(data,regex2), 'two matches',
REGEX_MATCH(data,regex3), 'three matches',
'none matches'
)

 

changing true() to 1 doesn't help. I ended up having to use a bunch of nested IFs...

IF(REGEX_MATCH(data,regex1),
'one matches',
IF(REGEX_MATCH(data,regex2),
'two matches',
IF( REGEX_MATCH(data,regex3),
'three matches',
'none matches'
)
)
)

 but this seems to be a limitation in the way Switch is implemented. 

Hope this helps

Cheers

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