Setting up advanced conditionals

Advanced Conditional Logic

Learn how to build powerful conditional workflows using AND/OR operators in Looply.

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Introduction

Conditional logic allows your workflows to make smart decisions based on multiple criteria. This guide will teach you how to combine conditions using AND and OR operators to create sophisticated business rules.

By the end of this tutorial, you'll understand:

• How AND and OR operators work together

• The concept of condition groups

• How to build complex business logic in the UI

• Workarounds for advanced scenarios

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Understanding the Basics

The Golden Rule

OR creates groups. AND combines conditions within a group.

Think of it this way:

Operator	What it does
OR	Starts a new possibility
AND	Adds another requirement to the current possibility

When your workflow evaluates conditions, it checks if any one group is fully satisfied. Within each group, all conditions must be true.

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How Condition Groups Work

Building Groups Step by Step

When you add conditions in the Looply UI, they're processed in order:

1. Start with the first condition (this begins Group 1)

2. Each AND condition gets added to the current group

3. Each OR condition starts a brand new group

4. Continue until all conditions are added

Visual Example

Consider these five conditions:

#	Condition	Type	Group
1	status = 201	SIMPLE	Group 1
2	subrc = 0	AND	Group 1
3	var1 > 10	OR	Group 2
4	var2 = "active"	AND	Group 2
5	var3 = 100	OR	Group 3

This creates three groups:

• Group 1: status = 201 AND subrc = 0

• Group 2: var1 > 10 AND var2 = "active"

• Group 3: var3 = 100

Final evaluation: Group 1 OR Group 2 OR Group 3

The workflow proceeds if any one of these groups evaluates to true.

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Practical Example: Order Processing

Let's build a real-world scenario. Your business wants to process an order if:

• Status is "approved" AND amount is less than £1,000, OR

• Priority is "high" AND customer is "premium" AND region is "US", OR

• Override flag is enabled

Building This in the UI

Step	Condition	Operator	Value	Type
1	status	equals	"approved"	SIMPLE
2	amount	less than	1000	AND
3	priority	equals	"high"	OR
4	customer_type	equals	"premium"	AND
5	region	equals	"US"	AND
6	override_flag	equals	true	OR

Resulting Groups

Group	Logic
Group 1	status = "approved" AND amount < 1000
Group 2	priority = "high" AND customer_type = "premium" AND region = "US"
Group 3	override_flag = true

Final Logic: Group 1 OR Group 2 OR Group 3

Test Scenarios

Test Case	status	amount	priority	customer_type	region	override	Result
Standard approval	approved	500	normal	standard	UK	false	✅ Pass (Group 1)
Premium fast-track	pending	5000	high	premium	US	false	✅ Pass (Group 2)
Manager override	rejected	10000	low	standard	UK	true	✅ Pass (Group 3)
No match	pending	2000	normal	standard	UK	false	❌ Fail

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Advanced Scenarios

What's Not Supported

The current system uses flat operator precedence where AND binds tighter than OR. This covers the vast majority of workflow use cases, but nested parentheses are not directly supported.

Examples that can't be built directly:

• A AND (B OR C) — nested OR within AND

• (A OR B) AND (C OR D) — multiple nested groups

The Solution: Distributive Law

You can rewrite nested expressions using mathematical equivalence. This is the same principle from Boolean algebra.

Example 1: A AND (B OR C)

Equivalent form: (A AND B) OR (A AND C)

Build it like this:

Step	Condition	Value	Type
1	A	value_a	SIMPLE
2	B	value_b	AND
3	A	value_a	OR
4	C	value_c	AND

Result: Two groups that together equal the original nested logic.

Example 2: (A OR B) AND (C OR D)

Equivalent form: (A AND C) OR (A AND D) OR (B AND C) OR (B AND D)

Build it like this:

Step	Condition	Value	Type
1	A	value_a	SIMPLE
2	C	value_c	AND
3	A	value_a	OR
4	D	value_d	AND
5	B	value_b	OR
6	C	value_c	AND
7	B	value_b	OR
8	D	value_d	AND

Result: Four groups that together equal the original nested logic.

{% hint style="info" %} Pro tip: While this expansion creates more conditions, the logic is mathematically identical. Your workflow will behave exactly as intended. {% endhint %}

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Quick Reference

Operator Behaviour Summary

Operator	Creates New Group?	Effect
SIMPLE	Yes (first condition)	Starts Group 1
AND	No	Adds to current group
OR	Yes	Starts new group

Evaluation Rules

1. All conditions in a group must be TRUE for the group to pass

2. Only ONE group needs to pass for the overall condition to succeed

3. Groups are evaluated independently

Common Patterns

Business Need	Pattern
All criteria must match	Use only AND operators
Any one criterion is enough	Use only OR operators
Multiple valid paths	Mix AND within groups, OR between them
Fallback conditions	Put fallback as final OR group

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Summary

• OR separates your conditions into independent groups

• AND chains conditions together within a group

• The workflow passes if any single group is fully satisfied

• For nested logic, use the distributive law to expand into equivalent flat conditions