Incorrect documentation regarding omitting the expression syntax for if conditionals

[JojOatXGME]

What article on docs.github.com is affected?

• https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/context-and-expression-syntax-for-github-actions#about-contexts-and-expressions
• https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#jobsjob_idif
• https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#jobsjob_idstepsif

What part(s) of the article would you like to see updated?

All the sections linked above contain the following snippet:

When you use expressions in an if conditional, you may omit the expression syntax (${{ }}) because GitHub automatically evaluates the if conditional as an expression, unless the expression contains any operators. If the expression contains any operators, the expression must be contained within ${{ }} to explicitly mark it for evaluation.

However, according to my own experience (and a lot of examples I find on the web), the exception (“unless the expression contains any operators”) does not seem to be true. For example, the expression of the following if is evaluated.

jobs:
  my-job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/master'

Note that == and && are both operators. I think it is pretty confusing that a lot of examples on the web omit ${{ }} while the documentation claims that it would not work.

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[ramyaparimi]

@JojOatXGME Thanks so much for opening an issue! I'll triage this for the team to take a look 👀

[lucascosti]

Thanks for raising this, @JojOatXGME; I can confirm this behavior as well, but I'll double-check with engineering that the current behavior is intended.

[lucascosti]

Confirmed with engineering that it's not necessary 👍. PR opened here: #8786

[JojOatXGME]

Thanks for fixing the documentation. Good to know that my confusion was not caused by some fundamental misconception on my site. :D