translation/source/documents/course/04-workflows/18-understanding-conditional-branching.md

Understanding Conditional Branching

Learn how to create workflows that take different paths based on data conditions, making your workflows more intelligent and adaptive.

What is Conditional Branching?

Conditional branching allows workflows to:

• Make decisions: Choose different processing paths based on data
• Handle variations: Process different content types differently
• Optimize performance: Skip unnecessary steps for certain inputs
• Customize behavior: Provide different experiences based on conditions

Real-World Example

Imagine a content processing workflow that:

• Short content (< 50 words): Gets quick processing
• Medium content (50-200 words): Gets standard processing
• Long content (> 200 words): Gets detailed processing with extra analysis

Basic Branching Syntax

.branch([
  [condition1, step1],
  [condition2, step2],
  [condition3, step3]
])

Where:

• condition: An async function that returns true or false
• step: The step to execute if the condition is true

Condition Functions

Conditions are functions that examine the input data:

// Example condition function
async ({ inputData }) => {
  return inputData.wordCount < 50;
};

Multiple Paths

• If multiple conditions are true, all matching steps run in parallel
• If no conditions are true, the workflow continues without executing any branch steps
• Conditions are evaluated in order, but matching steps run simultaneously

Benefits

• Smart routing: Send data down the most appropriate path
• Performance: Skip expensive operations when not needed
• Flexibility: Handle different scenarios in one workflow
• Maintainability: Clear logic for different processing paths

Next, you'll create a workflow with conditional branches!