Question

What is the most elegant what of comparing numbers in freemarker?

<#if (variable = 2) ></#if>

This will not include a null check?

If I do this

 <#if (variable! = 2) ></#if>

Then freemarker will complain about different types.

I ended up doing this

<#if (variable!?html = "2") ></#if>

But I guess this is not the way of doing it? How do I compare numbers with a null check in freemarker?

Answer 1

What do you want to happen if the variable is null? If you want then false:

<#if variable?? && variable == 2 ></#if>

If you want to assume 0:

<#if variable!0 == 2 ></#if>

Notes: = also works, but is a bad practice, as the expression can be confused with named parameter assignment. The () is redundant; it’s not like in Java. ?html meant to be used escaping < and such, but worse, you trigger localized formatting there that can spoil the comparison. So if you ever want to do something like that, use ?c (*c*omputer formatting) instead.