Conditional Statements in Python
We Want More!
Left or ... right?! Imagine if the device could actually "think" and make decisions on its own!
So far, we have used a
linear sequence, which is a series of instructions executed one after the other in the order they are written.
In practice, things are more serious. Depending on the data read from the keyboard, we may or may not execute a block of instructions!
EXAMPLE
We read an integer from the keyboard stored in the variable
n.
We need to display
whether it is greater than zero or not.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
A computer can be programmed to make decisions, but only in the way we teach it!
Decisions in programs can be made using the
if statement. The general form is:
The execution process is as follows:
Step 1. The
logical_expression is evaluated.
Step 2. If the logical expression evaluates to
True, then the
set_of_instructions_1 is executed.
Otherwise, if the value is
False, the
set_of_instructions_2 is executed.
Above, we tested whether the value stored in the variable
n is greater than zero or not.
Depending on the result, we displayed the corresponding information!
INDENTATION - NESTED INSTRUCTIONS
We saw that as a result of evaluating the logical expression, either one case or the other, a single instruction was executed.
When using the
if statement, after writing the mandatory colon character and pressing the
Enter key to enter the associated instruction for the case (
nested), the new line is
indented by exactly 4 characters:
which automatically indicates that within the
if we can write
a block consisting of multiple instructions, ... not just one.
Note. For those who have worked in Pascal or C/C++, the
compound statement was delimited by
begin and
end, or by
braces.
In Python, everything is simpler, we use indentation!
We will continue to study
relational and
logical operators to form test expressions for
if.
Run the program and then proceed to the next page.
