TARGET makes use of both comparison operators and logical operators. This document briefly describes what the operators are and how they are implemented in TARGET.
Comparison operators
All comparison operators in TARGET are always expressed with words and depend on the condition and the type of compared data. After you have selected a condition, click on the comparison operator to open a drop-down menu that offers you all operators available for that condition.
The example above shows the operators available for text fields, such as names of contacts.
Logical operators
To some extent, Splio masks the use of logical operators to make the conditions more easily readable to humans. This section shows how they can be realized within TARGET.
AND and OR
The AND and OR operators are used to define relations between conditions in a group and between groups.
If the circle on the left is all contacts who have purchased skis, and the circle on the right is those who purchased boots AND will return those who have purchased both OR will yield those who have purchased at least one of the two.
Combining conditions within a group
The operator that binds each group is displayed at the top of the screen (all the rule (AND):
- Using AND means that all conditions within the group must be fulfilled.
- Using OR means that at least one condition within the group must be fulfilled.
- You can change this operator for inclusion groups only. Exclusion groups are always governed by the AND operator.
Using AND and OR between groups
The same relationship can be applied to a group. In the example below, conditions belonging to both groups have to be matched to include a contact.
You can click on the “AND” button indicated by the arrow to switch it to “OR”.
It is strongly recommended, however, to create simpler filters and to use them as inclusion and exclusion filters when selecting the initial population for a campaign. Using the OR operator between groups performs the same operation as placing two simpler filters in the population.
EXCEPT (NOT)
This logical operator excludes elements belonging to the second group from the first group. In this image, only the contacts who purchased skis but did not purchase boots are selected.
This operation is realized in TARGET by using exclusion groups:
All contacts matched by the exclusion group (red) will be subtracted from the contacts matched by the inclusion group (green).
You can achieve the same result by including and excluding filters when selecting a population for a campaign, which is the preferred and more reliable way.
XOR (eXclusive OR)
This operator produces objects that match exactly one of the two conditions, eg, contacts who have purchased either skis or boots, but not both.
The following illustration shows how this can be achieved with TARGET:
You need to use an inclusion group and two exclusion groups containing exactly the same conditions. Then switch the inclusion group to “OR”. The exclusion group always uses the OR operator so you need to add two groups to have the desired effects.
Operators for “Not In” conditions
With a “not in” condition, you can add all contacts who do not match the condition. In the illustration below, if the red area “B” contains all contacts that are “in” group “B”, then the blue area “A” contains all contacts who are not in group “B”.
Excluding contacts with “not in”
In this example, there are two filters: “Car” contains car owners, and “Home” contains homeowners.
To exclude contacts who are either car owners or homeowners, use the “not in” conditions with the “OR” operator:
Not in Car OR Not in Home.
Whereas if you need to exclude only those contacts who are both car owners and homeowners, use the “AND” operator:
Not in Car AND Not in Home