Tools "Set Variable" if() formula always returns first condition regardless of input value

Questions
1

:bullseye: What is your goal?

I want a Tools “Set Variable” module to evaluate why someone was disqualified from a Tally form and save the correct reason to Airtable. There are 4 possible reasons: Under 18, Over 65, Not English comfortable, Not available.

:thinking: What is the problem & what have you tried?

The Tally Age field comes through as an array (Age). No matter what the person selected, the variable always outputs “Under 18” or empty — never the correct reason.
I have tried:

first() typed manually
first() inserted from the array functions panel
contains() from the array functions panel
Direct comparison with no wrapper

Current formula:
if(first(Age) = “1–17”; Under 18; if(first(Age) = “66+”; Over 65; if(first(English) = “No”; Not English comfortable; Not available)))
When I run the scenario and click the Tools module bubble, it shows Variable value: empty.

:clipboard: Error messages or input/output bundles

No error shown — scenario runs green
Tools module OUTPUT shows: DisqualifyReason: empty
Airtable confirms Age field value is exactly 66+ for test records

:link: Create public scenario page

3

Hey there,

I don’t see a module with such a formula in the scenario you shared. Can you show a screenshot and copy/paste the formula using the code formatting option so it gets preserved?

image

4

The output values need to be wrapped in quotes because without them, Make treats these as undefined variables and returns empty.

Try doing this:

if(first(Age) = “1-17”; “Under 18”; if(first(Age) = “66+”; “Over 65”;

if(first(English) = “No”; “Not English comfortable”; “Not available”)))

If there are still empty returns after that, the next thing to do is to check whether the dash in “1-17” is an en dash (–) as opposed to a regular hyphen(-).

Tally sometimes outputs special characters that look identical but do not match. Copy the value directly from a test bundle output rather than typing it in manually if you are unsure.