Workflow conditions quick reference (SharePoint 2010 Workflow platform)
Learn about the workflow conditions that are available in the SharePoint 2010 Workflow Platform in Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2013.Use this article only if you are working in SharePoint Designer 2013, but want to continue to use the SharePoint 2010 Workflow Platform.If instead you want to use the SharePoint Workflow Platform, see Workflow actions and activities reference for SharePoint, and other articles listed in the "Additional resources" section, which describe new features that are available in the newer platform.To begin creating a workflow by using the 2010 Workflow Platform, select SharePoint 2010 Workflow in the Platform Type box in the Create Workflow dialog box.
Note
SharePoint 2010 workflows have been retired since August 1, 2020 for new tenants and removed from existing tenants on November 1, 2020. If you’re using SharePoint 2010 workflows, we recommend migrating to Power Automate or other supported solutions. For more info, see SharePoint 2010 workflow retirement.
Where to find the workflow conditions
There are two ways to access the menu of available workflow conditions.
While you are editing inside a workflow step, do one of the following:
On the Workflow tab, in the Insert group, click Conditions to open the list of workflow actions.
Double-click inside a workflow step. In the search box that appears, type text that appears in the name of the condition that you want, such as "created", and then press Enter. Actions and conditions that contain the text you typed appear after the text box.
Which conditions are available to you while you are creating or modifying a workflow depends on the precise context that you are working in. See the following illustration for more information.
1 General conditions in SharePoint Designer 2013.
2 Check exact list item permissions and Check list item permissions are available only inside an impersonation step.
3 The file size is a specific range kilobytes and The file type is a specific type are available only in a workflow that is associated with the Document content type, a child of the Document content type, or a library.
4 If any value equals value and Person is a valid SharePoint user are the only conditions available when you create a site workflow.
General conditions
This section describes the conditions that are available in SharePoint Designer 2013 for list and reusable list workflows, no matter what list type or content type the workflow is associated to.
If any value equals value
This condition is initially displayed in a workflow step as If any value equals value. Use this condition when you want to compare one value with another value. Each value can be static text, a dynamic string, or a lookup to a variable, to context information, or to a SharePoint field.
You can select from a wide range of operators in your condition, such as contains and is greater than. To do so, you must set the first value in the condition and then click equals. The operators that are available depend on what the first value in the condition is set to. For example, if you used the lookup dialog to set the first value in the condition to a Date and Time data type, such as Created, the Contains operator is not among the available options.
There are two variations of the equals and contains operators:
The equals and contains operators are both case-sensitive.
The equals (ignoring case) and contains (ignoring case) operators are not case-sensitive.
The option that you choose for the second value in the condition also depends to some extent on what the first value is set to. For example, suppose that you set the first value to Created, and then you look up the second value by using a variable that is a string, such as Last 10 Characters. You would probably want to return the string As Date/Time, so that the comparison with Created will return predictable results.
Note
You can use logical operators such as**||**(or) or && (and) in the condition.
Following are examples of what the condition might look like in a workflow step:
If Variable: A week from Modifiedis greater thanToday
If Variable: Specification Namecontains (ignoring case)SharePoint Designer || SPD
The If any value equals value condition is one of only two conditions available when you are working in a site workflow, the other being Person is a valid SharePoint user. For more information about site workflows, see the Conditions available within a site workflow section of this article.
If current item field equals value
This condition is initially displayed in a workflow step as If field equals value. Use this condition to compare the value in a field in the current item (that is, the item that the list or reusable list workflow is currently running on) to another value. Values can be static text, dynamic strings, or lookups to variables, to context information, or to other SharePoint fields.
You can click field to see the list of options. The available options for field depend on the content type, list, library, or site that the workflow is associated to. For example, a workflow that is associated to a default library will have field options such as Title, Created, and Created By.
You can select from a range of operators in your condition, including contains and is greater than. Before you select an operator, you must first select a value for field, and then click equals. Which operators are available depends on the field setting. For example, if you used the lookup dialog to set field to a Date and Time data type, such as Created, the Contains operator is not listed as an option.
There are two variations of the equals and contains operators. The equals and contains operators are case-sensitive, while the equals (ignoring case) and contains (ignoring case) are not case-sensitive. For example, if you set field to Title and then use the contains operator, and if the value in your condition isDocument, then the condition is true only if the title contains Document, with a capital D, and not if it contains only document, without a capital D. If you use the contains (ignoring case) operator instead, then the condition is true for titles containing eitherDocument ordocument or both.
The option that you choose for value also depends to some extent on what field is set to. For example, suppose that you set field to Created, and then you look up the value by using a variable that is a string, such as Last 10 Characters. You would probably want to return the string As Date/Time, so that the comparison with Created will return predictable results.
Note
You can use logical operators such as**||**(or) or && (and) in the condition.
Following are examples of what the condition might look like in a workflow step. (Note that in the first example, is less than is interpreted to mean "earlier than".)
If Current Item:Modifiedis less than1/1/2010 12:00:00 AM
If Current Item:Pathcontains (ignoring case)Marketing || Public Relations
Created by a specific person
This condition is initially displayed in a workflow step as If created by specific person. Use this condition to discover whether an item was created by a specified user. You can specify the user either by entering their user name or email address manually (for example, Olivier@contoso.com) or by selecting the user from among users already listed in SharePoint, Exchange, or Active Directory.
Note
Because both the user name and the e-mail address are case sensitive, it is recommended that you use the latter method to ensure correct cases. If you must enter a user name or e-mail address manually, be careful to match the cases precisely. For example, the condition If created by contoso\molly does not evaluate as true if the user account is registered as Contoso\Molly.
Following is an example of what the condition might look like in a workflow step:
- If created by Molly Clark
Created in a specific date span
This condition is initially displayed in a workflow step as If created between date and date. Use this condition to discover whether an item was created between two specified dates. You can use the current date, a specified date, or the result of a lookup.
Following is an example of what the condition might look like in a workflow step:
- If created between 1/1/2009 and1/1/2010 12:00:00 AM
Modified by a specific person
This condition is initially displayed in a workflow step as If modified by specific person. Use this condition to discover whether an item was modified by a specified user. The user can be specified as an e-mail address, such as olivier@contoso.com, or selected from SharePoint, Exchange, or Active Directory users.
Note
The user name and e-mail address are case sensitive. It is recommended that you select a user name or e-mail address to help ensure that you use the correct case. If you type a user name or e-mail address, you must match the case of the account. For example, If modified by contoso\molly will not evaluate as true if the user account is Contoso\Molly.
Following is an example of what the condition might look like in a workflow step:
- If modified by Molly Clark
Modified in a specific date span
This condition is initially displayed in a workflow step as If modified between date and date. Use this condition to discover whether an item was modified between two specified dates. For each of the date values, you can use the current date, a specified date, or the result of a lookup.
Following is an example of what the condition might look like in a workflow step,
- If modified between 1/1/2009 and1/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
Person is a valid SharePoint user
This condition is initially displayed in a workflow step as If person is a valid SharePoint user. Use this condition to discover whether the specified user is a member of the SharePoint site.
In SharePoint Designer 2013, you can include people outside your corporate domain (called external participants) in your workflows. For example, suppose that you have assigned tasks in your workflow to external participants. You can then use this action to make a site user follow up with the external participants until the tasks are complete.
Following is an example of what the condition might look like in a workflow step,
- If Molly Clark is a valid SharePoint user
The Person is a valid SharePoint user condition is one of only two conditions available when you are working in a site workflow, the other being If any value equals value. For more information about site workflows, see the Conditions available within a site workflow section in this article.
Title field contains keywords
This condition is initially displayed in a workflow step as If title field contains keywords. Use this condition to discover whether the Title field for an item contains specified text. You can either specify the text in the String Builder (as a static value, as a dynamic string, or as a combination of the two) or insert a lookup to a field or variable.
Note
When using the Title field contains keywords condition, you cannot search for more than a single keyword text. To search for multiple, alternative keyword texts, you can use logical operators such as**||**( or) and && (and) in either of the following two conditions: If any value equals value and If current item field equals value. (Use the latter condition if you want to search in the Title field only). For an example, see the following image:>
Conditions available only within an impersonation step
By default, when a workflow is started manually it uses the permissions of the person who starts it. But what if the person who starts it doesn't have adequate rights for one or more of the operations that the workflow will need to perform? For example: What if the workflow will sometimes need to archive a document to a library for which the person who starts the workflow might have only the Read permission level, which does not include permission to archive?
In such cases, you can use one or more impersonation steps in the workflow. An impersonation step uses the permissions of the person who most recently saved the workflow template???typically the author of the template, who would typically have the needed permissions for all of the workflow's operations, including in this case permission to archive the document to the appropriate library.
Note
For both of these conditions, all of the specified users and groups must pass the comparison in order for the condition to evaluate to True.> For both of these conditions, it does not matter whether the specified permissions have been assigned explicitly to the specified individual users or whether the permissions are held by those individual users only implicitly (as members of a group to which the permissions have been assigned, for instance).For specified groups , on the other hand, the permissions must have been assigned explicitly and not inherited from a parent group.
Check list item permissions
This condition is initially displayed in an impersonation step as If permissions for these users are at least these permissions on item in this list.
Use this condition to discover whether, for the specified list or library, the individual permissions that each specified user and group holds include all of the individual permissions that are included in the specified security level or levels.
Examples
A user or group has only the Read permission level for a list, but the condition specifies the Approve level. The Read level does not include all of the permissions that are included in the Approve level, so in this case the condition evaluates as False.
Another user or group has the Full Control permission level for the same list. The Full Control level does include all of the permissions that are included in the Approve level (as well as other permissions), and so this time the condition evaluates as True.
Following is an example of what the condition might look like in a workflow step:
- If permissions for Contoso Members are at leastRead on item inCurrent Items
Check list item permission levels
This condition is initially displayed in an impersonation step as If permission levels for these users are at least these permission levels on item in this list.
Use this condition to discover whether, for the specified list or library, each specified user and group has been explicitly assigned the specified permission level or levels . Permissions held only implicitly (for instance, by a member of a group to which the permissions have been assigned) are not considered by this condition, and neither are the individual permissions held by the specified users and groups.
Examples
A user has been explicitly assigned only the Full Control permission level for a list, but the condition specifies only the Read level. Even though the user holds all of the individual permissions that are included in the Read level, the user not been explicitly assigned the Read level, so the condition evaluates as False.
A different user has been explicitly assigned only the Design permission level for a different list, but the condition specifies both the Design level and the Manage Hierarchy level. Because the user has been assigned only one of the two required levels, the condition evaluates as False.
For a third list, a user is a member of the Members group and inherits permissions from that group. However, no permissions level has been explicitly assigned to the user. The condition requires explicit assignment of the Contribute level, so because the user holds the permissions of that level only implicitly, the condition again evaluates to False.
Following is an example of what the condition might look like in a workflow step:
- If permission levels for Contoso Members are at leastRead on item inCurrent Items
Conditions available only when the workflow is associated to a library or the Document content type
The conditions The file size is a specific range kilobytes and The file type is a specific type are available only when your workflow is associated with a Library or the Document content type.
The file size in a specific range of kilobytes
This condition is initially displayed in a workflow step as If the file size is between size and size kilobytes. Use this condition to discover whether the file size of a document falls between two specified sizes measured in kilobytes. The condition does not include the specified sizes in the evaluation. For each instance of size, you can either enter a number or use a lookup.
Following is an example of what the condition might look like in a workflow step,
- If the file size is between 1023 and1048577 kilobytes
Note
The specified upper and lower limits are not included in the defined range. In the example given here, a file that is 1023 KB would evaluate as false because it is not between 1023 and 1048577.
The file type is a specific type
This condition initially displays in a workflow step as If the file type is specific type. Use this condition to discover whether the file type of the current item is the specified type, (such as docx. You can either enter the file type as a string or use a lookup.
Following is an example of what the condition might look like in a workflow step:
- If the file type is docx
Conditions available within a site workflow
Site workflows operate at the site level and are not associated with a list item. When you are working in a site workflow, only the following conditions are available. (All other conditions in SharePoint Designer 2013 operate on list items, and therefore none of them function in site workflows.)
If any value equals value
Person is a valid SharePoint user
From within an impersonation step in a site workflow:
Check list item permissions
Check list item permission levels
Person is a valid SharePoint user
For more information about conditions, see the General conditions section of this article.
See also
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