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title Otherwise Element (MSBuild)
description Learn how MSBuild uses the Otherwise element to specify the block of code to execute if and only if the conditions of all When elements are false.
ms.date 03/13/2017
ms.topic reference
f1_keywords
dev_langs
VB
CSharp
C++
helpviewer_keywords
<Otherwise> Element [MSBuild]
Otherwise Element [MSBuild]
author ghogen
ms.author ghogen
ms.subservice msbuild

Otherwise element (MSBuild)

Specifies the block of code to execute if and only if the conditions of all When elements evaluate to false.

<Project> <Choose> <When> <Choose> ... <Otherwise> <Choose> ...

Syntax

<Otherwise>
    <PropertyGroup>... </PropertyGroup>
    <ItemGroup>... </ItemGroup>
    <Choose>... </Choose>
</Otherwise>

Attributes and elements

The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.

Attributes

None.

Child elements

Element Description
Choose Optional element.

Evaluates child elements to select one section of code to execute. There may be zero or more Choose elements in an Otherwise element.
ItemGroup Optional element.

Contains a set of user-defined Item elements. There may be zero or more ItemGroup elements in an Otherwise element.
PropertyGroup Optional element.

Contains a set of user-defined Property elements. There may be zero or more PropertyGroup elements in an Otherwise element.

Parent elements

Element Description
Choose Evaluates child elements to select one section of code to execute.

Remarks

There may be only one Otherwise element in a Choose element, and it must be last element.

The Choose, When, and Otherwise elements are used together to provide a way to select one section of code to execute out of a number of possible alternatives. For more information, see Conditional constructs.

Example

The following project uses the Choose element to select which set of property values in the When elements to set. If the Condition attributes of both When elements evaluate to false, the property values in the Otherwise element are set.

<Project>
    <PropertyGroup>
        <Configuration Condition="'$(Configuration)' == ''">Debug</Configuration>
        <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
        <RootNamespace>ConsoleApplication1</RootNamespace>
        <AssemblyName>ConsoleApplication1</AssemblyName>
        <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <Choose>
        <When Condition=" '$(Configuration)'=='debug' ">
            <PropertyGroup>
                <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
                <DebugType>full</DebugType>
                <Optimize>false</Optimize>
                <OutputPath>.\bin\Debug\</OutputPath>
                <DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
            </PropertyGroup>
            <ItemGroup>
                <Compile Include="UnitTesting\*.cs" />
                <Reference Include="NUnit.dll" />
            </ItemGroup>
        </When>
        <When Condition=" '$(Configuration)'=='retail' ">
            <PropertyGroup>
                <DebugSymbols>false</DebugSymbols>
                <Optimize>true</Optimize>
                <OutputPath>.\bin\Release\</OutputPath>
                <DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants>
            </PropertyGroup>
        </When>
        <Otherwise>
            <PropertyGroup>
                <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
                <Optimize>false</Optimize>
                <OutputPath>.\bin\$(Configuration)\</OutputPath>
                <DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
            </PropertyGroup>
        </Otherwise>
        </Choose>
    <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
</Project>

See also