Python decision making statements


August 23, 2021, Learn eTutorial
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In this python decision-making statement tutorial, we will master all about decision-making constructs like if, if-else, if elif, etc used in python programming. Also, we will discuss the syntax and flowchart for the decision-making statement with examples.

To understand in an easy way let's take the real-world scenario of Traffic Signals. What happens when the traffic signal lights red? All vehicles will stop. When it lights green, vehicles will start to drive. Thus the flow of vehicles on road is controlled by Traffic signals.

Similarly in the programming world, Decision-making constructs are used to control the flow of the program. It predicts the outcome and executes the program code based on the outcome. The outcome of the conditional statement is a boolean value like True or False.

Note: Python reads non-zero values as True while None and zero as False.

if conditional Statements in python

In plain English, the word  if  denotes a condition or a supposition. Similarly in the python programming language if  is a decision-making construct that refers to a conditional statement.

Among the decision-making, constructs if is the basic one. If evaluates the expression applied to it and checks whether the expression meets the condition or not. When the expression meets the condition the result will be True and the python will execute the block of statements that follow the result. Otherwise, it skips the block and jumps to the statements after the block.

Syntax of IF conditional statement in python

if condition:
   #body of if
 

Flowchart of IF conditional statement in python

if conditional statement can be best visualized using the flowchart given below.

Python If Flowchart

Example: Program to show the working of “if”


a = 20;

if a>10:
 print('a is greater than 10')

print('Bye!!!!')
 

Output:


A is greater than 10
Bye!!!!

Here in the above example condition a>10 is evaluated to find out whether the variable a holds a value greater than 10 or not. In our case variable  ‘a’ holds the value 20 which is greater than 10, hence the condition is True. So the program control is directed to the very next statement of if and prints the result as a is greater than 10. Then the program control is shifted to the statement out of indentation of ‘if’.

Note: Decision-making statement relies on indentation.

The limitation of a single if statement is that it only executes the statement following the True. The false case is not addressed in a single if statement.

If else Statements in python

To overcome the limitation of a single ‘if’ statement, we use the ‘else’.statement. To be specific in the if-else statement python evaluates the condition  and outputs the result as follows:

  • if the condition is True, the body of if  gets executed
  • if the condition is False, the body of else gets executed.

Syntax of if-else conditional statement in python


if Condition:
#execute body of if
else:
 #execute body of else
 

Flowchart of if else statements in python

Python If Syntax

Now we can check how if else statement works in a python program

Example: If else program

a = 20;

if a<10:
 print('a is less than 10')
else:
 print('a is greater than 10')
 

Output:


a is greater than 10

The above example evaluates the condition a<10. If the condition evaluates to True , then it prints a is less than 10 or if the condition evaluates to False then the program control shifts to else part and prints a is greater than 10.In this scenario variable ‘a’ contains the value 20 which is greater than 10, so the outcome is else part statement ie. a is greater than 10.

IF ELIF Statements

This is a bit complex version of if else. In this elif is a python keyword referring to else..if. In a nutshell, if elif else is a chain of conditional statements. It is sometimes referred to as if elif else ladder.

Syntax of IF ELIF ELSE conditional statement in python


if Condition1:
#execute body of if
elif Condtion2:
 #execute body of elif
elif Condition3:
 #execute body if elif
else:
#execute body if else 
 

Flow chart of elif

Python IF ELIF ELSE Flowchart

Here is the example of if..elif..else statements.

Example: if...elif...else

a = 10
b = 20

if a==b:
    print('a is equal to b')
elif a < b:
    print("a is less than b")
else: 
    print("a is greater than b")
print('Exit')

Output:

a is less than b
Exit

In the above example, condition a== b is evaluated. If a and b holds the same value then the body of if the part is executed and prints a is equal to b. But in our case, the condition evaluates to False and hence the else if the part is executed where again evaluates the condition whether a is less than b or not. As variable a holds the value 10 and b holds the value 20, the condition evaluates to true and hence prints a is less than b as the result.

In case the a is 20 and b is 10 then the condition fails and else part gets executed with result a is greater than b.

Nested If

In some situations even though the expression evaluates to True, we need to check other conditions also. In such scenarios, we make use of nested if despite the fact of how complex it is. The complexity of a nested if depends on the level of nesting included.

An if statement containing another if statement is known as nested if. We can nest a simple if or if else statement or if elif else statements. This is purely a programmer choice and hence there is no generalized syntax or flow chart available. However, for your better understanding consider the below syntax and flow chart.

Syntax of Nested if


if Condition1:
#execute body of if(condition1)
    if Condtion2:
 #execute body of if (condition 2)
    elif Condition3:
 #execute body if elif
    else:
#execute body of else (nested)
else:
   #execute body of else
 

Flowchart of Nested if

Python Nested If

Example: Nested if

a = 25
b = 20

if a > 0:
 if a==b:
     print('a is equal to b')
 elif a < b:
     print("a is less than b")
 else: 
     print("a is greater than b")
else:
 print("a is less than 0")
print('Exit')

Output:

a is greater than b
Exit

In the above example, initially a >0 is evaluated.
if a>0 is true then the program control moves to nested if. In this case, a holds value 25 so a is greater than zero and moves to nested if.
Now evaluates the condition a==b whose outcome is a false for our scenario as a=25 and b=20.
Hence the flow shifts to elif, where condition a is checked. So our case prints a is greater than b.