Comparison Operators
Comparison operators are used to compare the equivalency or non-equivalency of 2 expressions of the same field type. The result of a comparison expression is a Boolean value (returns true, false, or NULL for invalid, such as comparing a text value to a numeric value). Boolean expressions are most often used to specify data processing conditions or filter criteria.
Example: You can use comparison operators in a
CASE
expression:CASE WHEN [age] <= 25 THEN "0-25" WHEN [age] <= 50 THEN "26-50" ELSE "over 50" END
This expression compares the value in the age field to a literal number value. If true, it returns the appropriate Boolean value.
For more details and some examples of Boolean expressions, see Reference: Boolean Expressions. For details on how Workday handles NULL values in Boolean expressions, see Concept: NULL Values in Tables and Datasets.
When comparing date types to string types, if the string types use the ISO 8601 format, the application changes the string values to date values and compares dates to dates. For string types using non ISO 8601 formats, The application returns "null".
Example:
- String type using ISO 8601 format: 2025-12-01
- String type using non ISO 8601 format: 12/01/2024
Operator | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
= or ==
| Equal to | [order_date] = "12/22/2016"
|
>
| Greater than | [age] > 18
|
!>
| Not greater than (equivalent to < ) | [age] !> 8
|
<
| Less than | [age] < 30
|
!<
| Not less than (equivalent to >= ) | [age] !< 12
|
>=
| Greater than or equal to | [age] >= 20
|
<=
| Less than or equal to | [age] <= 29
|
<> or != or ^=
| Not equal to | [age] <> 30
|
BETWEEN
min_value AND max_value
| Test whether a date or numeric value is within the min and max values (inclusive). | [year] BETWEEN 2014 AND 2016
|
IN(
list ) | Test whether a value is within a set. | [product_type] IN("tablet","phone","laptop")
|
LIKE("
pattern ") | Simple inclusive case-insensitive character pattern matching. The * character matches any number of characters. The ? character matches exactly 1 (a single) character. | [last_name] LIKE("?utch*")
Matches Kutcher , hutch but not Krutcher or crutch [company_name] LIKE("workday") Matches Workday or workday |
value
IS NULL
| Check whether a field value or expression is null (empty). | [ship_date] IS NULL
Evaluates to true when the ship_date field is empty |