How to implement an IF ELSE condition for hiding certain fields

[Anonymous]

Hello PowerApps Community,

I am trying to build a form where based off certain selection specific fields or visible or invisible.

For example

Form Type = A or B

If Form A is selected fields 2 4 6 are visible but not 1 3 5

else fields 1 3 5 are visible but not 2 4 6.

Do I do this using rules and setting 'equal to' conditions on the field? Then set the actions to hide the other fields? Or is there some better way to implement this? I appreciate any insight about this or any documentation I can read to understand functions better.

[caburk]

Do you have 2 different forms? Unless you're scenario is more complex than the below, all you'd need to do is put fields 2, 4, 6 on form A and 1, 3, 5 on form B.

Business rules are a great option. If you go this route, you're able to set the scope to All forms, a single form, or the entire entity (server-side). 

[tuuman]

Well there's couple of ways to do this.

First thing to know is that are you using one form with different visibilities of the fields?

Or do you have two separate forms?

If you have two separate forms you can put fields 1,3 and 5 to the first form and then put 2, 4 and 6 to the second. Then in the forms Visibility field you want to set a context variable or normal boolean type variable (I get on to this later).

If you got one form then you need to separately set to every field their own Visibility. Use context variables or normal boolean variable to do this. Basicly you want 1, 3 and 5 set like ShowField and on 2, 4 and 6 you need to reverse it to !ShowField.

Now we need a way to switch the visibility. The best way is to use button or Yes-No-switch or something that is easy to convert in to bool. Then you can either use normal variable or context variable.

Let's say we have a button called SwitchFields_Button. On OnSelect field we need to add this:

UpdateContext({ShowFields:!ShowFields})

//OR

If(Not(varShowFields);Set(varShowFields;true);Ser(varShowFields;false)
//We use If-statement to check if the variable is true of false and depending on that we change the value to true or false. E.g. If varShowFields is true -> set it to false. This way we are not stuck with button that can only set true value. Otherwise we need two separate buttons, one that set true and other one false

Now on to the forms or form items Visibility field we need to set this:

ShowFields
//If you're setting this to fields Visibility, you need to set !ShowFields to the 2,4 and 6

//OR

varShowFields
//And if you set this to fields Visibility, remember to set !varShowFields to 2,4 and 6

I hope this cleared up something. There may be better ways to do this but this is how I've done things in the past.

[Anonymous]

Thank You @caburk and @tuuman for the replies.

It is one form and I am trying to write a function to add to the visible properties on the datacards to be true or false depending on if a specific string is selected in another datacard.

Would I set the

ShowFields
//If you're setting this to fields Visibility, you need to set !ShowFields to the 2,4 and 6

//OR

varShowFields
//And if you set this to fields Visibility, remember to set !varShowFields to 2,4 and 6

 To the visibility field on the datacards I want to hide or not hide?

and for this

If(Not(varShowFields);Set(varShowFields;true);Ser(varShowFields;false)
//We use If-statement to check if the variable is true of false and depending on that we change the value to true or false. E.g. If varShowFields is true -> set it to false. This way we are not stuck with button that can only set true value. Otherwise we need two separate buttons, one that set true and other one false

What would be the varshowfields in this functon? Is that the test to determine if setvisible should be true or false? I was wondering if there is a function to write like this:

(If(DataCardA.value = '1')

[set visible = hidden

ele

set visible = not hidden]

and like with your example the only two options would be one or two or true or false.

I appreciate any further insight

[tuuman]

Yes you put either ShowFields or varShowFields on DataCards Visibile field. So let's say we have following datacards:
1_DataCard
2_DataCard
3_DataCard
4_DataCard
5_DataCard
6_DataCard

We want to set these so, that either 1,3 and 5 are shown or 2,4 and 6. We need to their Visible fields following:
1_DataCard -> ShowFields (OR varShowFields)
2_DataCard -> !ShowFields (OR !varShowField)
3_DataCard -> ShowFields
4_DataCard -> !ShowFields
5_DataCard -> ShowFields
6_DataCard -> !ShowFields

The varShowFields purpose is to hold either true of false value that is neede for Visible field. It's basicly same as ShowFields in sense that both holds true or false but works different way and is a bit messier. However if you need to set the value on start you can't do that with UpdateContext but with Set-function you can do that. You can use either one you want, UpdateContext is cleaner and works better in some conditions while Set-function works better on other conditions.

And yes, you can use a dropdown to determine what datacards you want to show. It is best practice to use variables in this because otherwise you need to copy paste this in every datacards Visible field:

If(DataCardValue1.Selected.Item="1";true,false)
//DataCardValue1 will be the one that is found in Dropdown

NOTE: you need to reverse the logic on 2,4 and 6, jsut swap the true and false other way around

However this isn't good if you need to change the visibility afterwards, because you would need to change the code on every field separately. For this reason I would advise to add this on the Dropdown OnChange (or OnSelect field, not sure which one):

If(DataCardValue1.Selected.Item="1";Set(varShowFields;true);Set(varShowFields;false))

//OR WITH updateContext

If(DataCardValue1.Selected.Item="1";UpdateContext({ShowFields:true});UpdateContext({ShowFields:false})

Now you need to add varShowFields and !varShowFields to datacards Visible fields. You can could use UdpateContext here too but i'm not sure how well it works (though it should work just fine).

This is pretty much how I would do it.

[Anonymous]

@tuuman

I really appreciate you helping me learn this and I apologize in advance if I am asking too many questions but I tried what you suggested I can't get it to work off the bat. I have a DropDown control called Dropdown3 with two options "Complete" and "Not Complete".

I am trying to set the visible property of a datacard called "Project" based off if "Complete" or "Not Complete" is chosen. So I click on the "Project" datacard properties and then I clicked on the visible property and I wrote this function:

If(Dropdown3.Selected.Value = Complete, true,false)

I get no errors but the datacard "Project" doesn't actually become visible when "Complete" is selected and not visible when anything else selected doesn't equal "Complete".

I tried your syntax

If(Dropdown3.Selected.Value = Complete; true,false)

but I then get two errors with the equal sign saying invalid argument type and I get another at the semi colon saying unexpected operator. I attached a screen shot of this and also I attached another screen shot of the visible field I am trying to add the function to.

I tried other variations using this syntax also but I still get errors:

If(DataCardValue1.Selected.Item="1";Set(varShowFields;true);Set(varShowFields;false))

//OR WITH updateContext

If(DataCardValue1.Selected.Item="1";UpdateContext({ShowFields:true});UpdateContext({ShowFields:false})

Its like I got the test to work in the IF statement to check if the dropdown control has "Complete" selected  but I am still missing how to execute the result of actually setting the visible property to either true or false. I looked up the IF statement syntax and found this article but I am still missing how to executue the result.

If and Switch Syntax Documentation I read.

Again thank you for all your time and help.

[tuuman · Accepted solution]

Depending on your locale you either need to use comma " , " or semicolon " ; " to separate arguments inside functions. You can't use both. In my case I use " ; " to separate parameters and " ;; " to separate lines.

Also you might need to put the "Complete" inside quotes like ""Complete"". For example:
If(Dropdown3.Selected.Value = "Complete", true, false) (Note, use only commas or semicolons depending on your locale)

They way If-statement works is that you give it a logical statement like if A = 10. If it's true, it returns a true value and that can be almost anything but in our case we return true. And if we the statement is false, it either returns nothing or it returns false (else) value if it's stated. In our case our false value will be false.

Now if we would inject this straight in to the Datacards we simply put the code I wrote above in to the Datacards Visible field (not in the Dropdown3 Visible or otherwise our dropdown menu will disappear). However if we do this through variables we can set the variable on Dropdown3 OnSelect or OnChange field. We add following code:

If(Dropdown3.Selected.Value="Complete", UpdateContext({ShowFields:true}), UpdateContext({ShowFields:false}))

Now in to the Datacard Visible field just add ShowFields or !ShowFields

If you're interested on what's happening I've put a lenghty description below.

Spoiler

First select a value from dropdown. OnChange or OnSelect triggers the If-statement and it proceeds to check the logical statement: is the selected value "Complete"? If statement was true, we create/update a context variable called ShowFields and we set the value true. Now on the Datacards Visible fields we have set the value to be ShowFields. But why? If Visible only accepts boolean (true/false) values? That's because it reads the variable and see it's holding a value of true. That's where it picks whether the Visible value is true or false. On the other hand !ShowFields would return false if the value is true. It basicly reverse the logic.
If we then change the the dropdown to anything else than Complete (in this case there's only "Not complete") we then proceed to else value (false). The else value is the one that is executed no other logical statements returns true. It's like default value. Rememer there can be multiple logical statements inside If-statement. Now that our ShowFields holds false all the datacards that has Visible value from variable ShowFields will be hidden while datacards with !ShowFields willl be shown.

I hope this cleared up the things.

[Anonymous]

@tuuman

You are a champion!

To clear things up for anyone else who comes by this first off you were correct, the previos line of code now works;

If(Dropdown3.Selected.Value = "Complete", true,false)

 once I added double quotes around the string "Complete".

Also I understand what you mean now by setting it individually to each data card with that formula or using the context variable for it to check the datacards ShowFields vs !Showfields value set on the visible property. I am going to try the context variables techniqe now because that is more efficient. I also plan on revisiting this thread to make sure I re-read and understand the detailed description you provided. @tuuman than you again for all your time teaching me this stuff. I definitely plan on paying it forward as I continue to learn powerapps further! It is a great tool!

Best Regards,

HelloWorld!

[Anonymous]

@tuuman

Just want to add that I tried your second technique of using ShowFields and !ShowFields and it worked perfectly! Thank you again @tuuman!