A Beginner's Guide To "IFELSE" Workflows

An IF formula chooses a result based on a condition. You can use it to label records before an automation acts.

Try one Airtable formula

Create a single-select field named Status. Add options named Ready and Draft. Create a formula field using:

IF({Status} = BLANK(), "Missing status", IF({Status} = "Ready", "Send", "Wait"))

The outer IF checks for a blank value. The inner IF checks whether the status equals Ready. Airtable's formula reference explains IF and blank values.

Use the result in a workflow

A label does not send anything by itself. An automation must explicitly use it as a trigger or condition. Test the three rows above without enabling message actions. Keep the blank case separate so missing data does not silently follow the false branch. The Airtable word-count formula uses the same blank check before counting text.

When formulas become difficult to read, add conditional Airtable automation actions instead.

The original chapters include data changes, automation filters, labels, and nested IF statements. Start with the three-row test before adding another condition.

Original video

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