Conditional Expressions

Explore how to use arithmetic, comparison, equality, logical, and conditional operators in OpenTofu configurations and the interactive console.

Interactive Arithmetic in the Console
Equality & Inequality Operators
Comparison Operators
Logical Operators & NOT
Defining Variables and Testing Expressions
Ternary (Conditional) Expressions in Configurations
References

Interactive Arithmetic in the Console

You can quickly evaluate math expressions in the OpenTofu console:

$ tofu console
> 1 + 2
3
> 10 / 4
2.5
> 7 * (3 - 1)
14

Equality & Inequality Operators

Equality and inequality comparisons return a Boolean. Use them to compare values of any type:

$ tofu console
> 8 == 8
true
> 8 != "8"
true
> 8 == "8"
false

The operators == and != are type-sensitive. A number and a string holding the same digits are considered unequal.

Comparison Operators

Numeric comparisons also yield Boolean results. Here’s a quick reference:

Operator	Description	Example
`>`	Greater than	`5 > 4` → true
`>=`	Greater than or equal to	`5 >= 5` → true
`<`	Less than	`3 < 4` → true
`<=`	Less than or equal to	`3 <= 3` → true

$ tofu console
> 5 > 7
false
> 4 <= 5
true

Logical Operators & NOT

Combine Boolean expressions using AND (&&) and OR (||), and invert them with NOT (!):

$ tofu console
> (8 > 7) && (8 < 10)
true
> (8 > 10) || (8 < 10)
true
> !(8 == 8)
false

Defining Variables and Testing Expressions

You can declare variables in HCL and reference them in the console:

variable "a" {
  type    = number
  default = 50
}

variable "b" {
  type    = number
  default = 25
}

$ tofu console
> var.a > var.b
true
> var.a + var.b
75

Ternary (Conditional) Expressions in Configurations

Use the ternary operator (condition ? true_val : false_val) to enforce defaults. For example, generate a random password whose length is at least 8 characters:

variable "length" {
  type        = number
  description = "Desired password length (minimum 8)"
}

resource "random_password" "password_generator" {
  length = var.length < 8 ? 8 : var.length
}

output "password" {
  value     = random_password.password_generator.result
  sensitive = true
}

Always enforce a minimum length for generated passwords to maintain security standards.

Initialize, plan, and apply:

$ tofu init
$ tofu plan -var='length=5'
$ tofu apply -var='length=5' -auto-approve

Even if you pass length=5, OpenTofu generates an 8-character password. Passing a higher value (e.g., 12) yields a 12-character result.

Course Introduction

Introduction to Infrastructure as Code

OpenTofu Basics

OpenTofu State

Working with OpenTofu

Remote State

OpenTofu Provisioners

OpenTofu Import, Tainting Resources and Deubugging

OpenTofu Modules

OpenTofu Functions and Conditional Expressions

OpenTofu: Beyond Basics

Course Conclusion

Getting Started with OpenTofu

Conditional Expressions

Table of Contents

Interactive Arithmetic in the Console

Equality & Inequality Operators

Comparison Operators

Logical Operators & NOT

Defining Variables and Testing Expressions

Ternary (Conditional) Expressions in Configurations

References

Watch Video

​Table of Contents

​Interactive Arithmetic in the Console

​Equality & Inequality Operators

​Comparison Operators

​Logical Operators & NOT

​Defining Variables and Testing Expressions

​Ternary (Conditional) Expressions in Configurations

​References

Watch Video

Table of Contents

Interactive Arithmetic in the Console

Equality & Inequality Operators

Comparison Operators

Logical Operators & NOT

Defining Variables and Testing Expressions

Ternary (Conditional) Expressions in Configurations

References