Adf set increment counter

Question

In ADF I am using ForEach activity(iterate 5000) which contains IF ELSE condition. When IF condition satisfied then I am performing task x. Now I need to set threshold counter (+1) , so that once threshold reach => 1000 and IF conditions satisfied then task x should get skipped. How can I achieve this in adf without using dataflow.

Answer 1

Hi ,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

What You Need to Do in ADF:

1. Create a pipeline-level variable (counter) of type integer, initialized to 0.
2. In your ForEach loop (iterating 5000 items), ensure it runs in sequential mode. This is critical to maintain variable state across iterations.
3. Inside the loop:
   • First, apply your IF condition that decides whether Task X should run.
   • If the condition is true:
   • Add another IF block to check if the counter is still below your threshold (less than 1000).
   • If yes:
     • Execute Task X.
     • Increment the counter by 1 using a "Set Variable" activity.
   • If not:
     • Skip Task X.

Key Reminders:

Sequential execution is required to ensure counter increments reliably.

Pipeline variables are the only way to manage state across iterations in ADF (without Data Flows).

Avoid complex expressions; keep it modular with nested activities for clarity.

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