Difference in existing variables in "Switch" and "If Then"

[Nige_S]

@Henning_Frenzel

Can you help me to understand why this is happening?

From the man himself, in another thread:

@peternlewis

As has been noted, the concept of whether a variable exists or not is not one which has a single answer, and so is generally not one you should ask.

...and it appears that "Switch/Case" and "If Then" ask in different ways and get different answers.

As Peter said in that thread and @Airy showed above, it's better to use "is/is not empty" -- whether a variable has been %delete%ed, set to an empty string, or has never been instantiated, it "is empty" for both "Switch/Case" and "If Then" actions.

@Henning_Frenzel

It being empty but existing is a condition I "need" in my setup.

Can you explain this? There may be other ways to do what you want -- or there's always the "explicitly set to a known bogus value" method, just as easy to test for as "exists".