AMPscript to show copy dynamically

Question

I'm trying to write a bit of AMPscript that does the following:

IF firstname exists say "John, your"

IF no firstname say "Your"

I tried this, but it doesn't work:

%%=iif(empty(@firstName),"Your", concat(propercase(@firstName, "your")))=%%

I know it's a simple answer, help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

You have a couple issues with it, but were 90% of the way there. (Assuming you have @firstName correctly defined above this snippet of course)

%%=iif(empty(@firstName),"Your", concat(propercase(@firstName, "your")))=%%
should be:
%%=iif(empty(@firstName),"Your", concat(propercase(@firstName), ", your"))=%%

The difference being: 1. altering the propercase to only go around @firstName so that the 'your' does not become capitalized as well. 2. Adding a comma and a space (', ') to your concat string value so it shows John, your instead of Johnyour

That is pretty much it! Like I said, you were 90% of the way there! Great Job.

I saw your comment on another answer asking about setting FirstName if that does not exist in the Sendable data. See below for best practice to handle this:

SET @firstName = AttributeValue("firstName")
Utilizing AttributeValue will allow a null value for @firstName if the field does not exist, instead of causing an error like the raw personalization string would (SET @firstName = firstName)

---

Final block would be:

%%[ 
VAR @firstName
SET @firstName = AttributeValue("firstName")
]%%

%%=iif(empty(@firstName),"Your", concat(propercase(@firstName), ", your"))=%%

Assuming firstName field in the sending DE is John, the output would be:
John, your
and if firstName is empty or field does not exist, output would be:
Your

Answer 2

Try this:

%%[

set @firstName = AttributeValue("firstName")
set @your = Iif(not Empty(@firstName), Concat(ProperCase(@firstName), ", your"), "Your")

]%%

%%=v(@your)=%%

Reference:

• Iif
• Concat
• ProperCase

EDIT

If the field does not exist in the sendable Data Extension, it will render as the fallback version, in this case “Your”.

Answer 3

I'll assume you've SET @FirstName correctly.

I would try it a little differently...maybe not as slick but:

%%[ IF @FirstName is null THEN ]%% Your %%[ELSE]%% %%=ProperCase(@FirstName)=%%, your %%[ENDIF]%%

OR

%%[ IF Empty(AttributeValue("FirstName")) THEN ]%% Your %%[ELSE]%% %%=ProperCase(@FirstName)=%%, your %%[ENDIF]%%