Problem with playa inside url segment conditional

Question

Having an issue placing playa inside a URL segment conditional. Inside the conditional, playa doesn't return entries, though if I substitute the playa call with simple text, the conditional works. And strangely, if I have a blank {if:else} statement, the playa entries will show.

Any ideas?

Doesn't work:

{exp:channel:entries channel="my-channel" limit="1"}
   {if segment_3 == "{entry_id}" }

        {exp:playa:children field="my-channel-field"}
            <li><a href="#">{title} - {other-field}</a></li>
        {/exp:playa:children}

   {/if}
{/exp:channel:entries}

Works:

{if segment_3 == "{entry_id}" }
  Nice id!
 {if:else}
  Sorry, underage!
{/if}

Also works:

   {if segment_3 == "{entry_id}" }
        {exp:playa:children field="my-channel-field"}
            <li><a href="#">{title} - {other-field}</a></li>
        {/exp:playa:children}
    {if:else}
   {/if}

Answer 1

The difference may be due to the parsing order. The 1st block in your example is a simple conditional, vs the advanced conditional in the 3rd block. So the time the conditional is parsed is later with the advanced. What if you try adding parse="inward" to your first example:

{exp:channel:entries channel="my-channel" limit="1" parse="inward"}