Building conditions — rules, criteria and AND/OR logic

The Conditions stage (titled Search Criteria in the list builder) is where you define exactly who is included in your list. You build Rules, and inside each rule you add Criteria, combining them with And/Or logic.

Rules and criteria

• A Rule is a group of one or more criteria.
• A Criterion is a single test against a field.
• Add criteria within a rule using Add Criteria, and add more rules using Add New Rule.
• And/Or logic is set per rule under Define how the criteria work together, and also applies between rules.

The three parts of every criterion

Each criterion row begins with Where and has three parts:

1. Field — what you are testing, chosen from the field menus (Profile Details, Custom Fields, Location Lookup, Select Areas on Map, Draw Area on Map, Organisation Connections, Email campaigns, Existing Lists, Forms / Surveys / Petitions, Posts, Events, Stakeholder Leader, Goals, Subscriptions, Receipts — see Field menus and operators).
2. Operator — how you are testing it. Operators vary by field type:
   • Text / list fields: include, exclude, is empty.
   • Numeric fields: is, less than or equal, greater than or equal, greater than, less than, is empty.
   • Date fields: date comparison operators (for example is before / is after / is on) plus is empty.
3. Value — the target value or range you are matching against.

And vs Or logic

• And means a record must satisfy all the joined criteria to be included. Example: Member And Age greater than 50 returns only members who are also over 50.
• Or means a record need satisfy only one of the joined criteria. Example: Member Or Resigned returns anyone who is either a member or has resigned.

Because And/Or can be set both within a rule and between rules, you can build precise, layered segments — for example one rule that narrows by membership and age, combined with another rule that narrows by location.

Step-by-step: building conditions

1. In the list builder, go to the Conditions (Search Criteria) stage.
2. In Rule 1, click Add Criteria and set the Where row: choose a Field, an Operator and a Value.
3. To narrow further, click Add Criteria again and set Define how the criteria work together to And.
4. To broaden, add a criterion or rule joined with Or.
5. Click Add New Rule to add more rules, and set the And/Or logic between them.
6. Click Next to move to Results and preview the records your conditions return.

Tips

• Build from broad to narrow: start with the criterion that captures most of your intended audience, then add And criteria to refine.
• Use Or when you are combining alternative ways of qualifying for the same list.
• Always preview in Results before acting — small logic changes can dramatically change the count.