Conditional Logic with If Statements
- Feb 26 • 4 min read
- Key Terms: math
Boolean Expressions
A boolean expression always evaluates to be True or False.
You can evaluate a boolean expression with a == operator.
"dan" == "dan"
True
3 == 3
True
3 == 7
False
True and False are of type bool.
type(True)
bool
Relational operators
Relational operators evaluate expressions to be True or False.
All examples below evaluate to True
| operator | code example | code description |
|---|---|---|
| == | 8 == 8 | 8 is equal to 8 |
| != | 7 != 8 | 7 is not equal to 8 |
| > | 4 > 2 | 4 is greater than 2 |
| < | 3 < 5 | 3 is less than 5 |
| >= | 10 >= 9 | 10 is greater than or equal to 9 |
| <= | 6 <= 6 | 6 is less less than or equal to 6 |
Remember = is an assignment operator in Python while a == is a relational operator.
Logical Operators
All examples below evaluate to true.
| operator | code example | code description |
|---|---|---|
| and | 3 > 2 and 5 > 4 | 3 is greater than 2 and 5 is greater than 4 |
| or | 5 > 4 or 3 > 4 | 5 is greater than 4 or 3 is greater than 4 |
| not | not 4 > 6 | not 4 is greater than 6 - two negatives make a positive |
Conditional Execution
In programming, it's helpful to check conditions to change the behavior of programs and output relevant results. Conditional statements give us this ability.
if 8 > 5:
print("8 is greater than 5")
8 is greater than 5
The boolean of 8 > 5 after the if is called the condition.
Chained conditionals
Sometimes, there are two or more conditionals to be evaluated.
Let's say I ask you to guess a number between 0 and 10 and your goal is to guess correctly. You guess 6 first and the correct number is 9.
guess = 6
if guess < 9:
print("you guessed too low")
elif guess > 9:
print("you guessed too high")
else:
("you're correct!")
you guessed too low
elif is an abbreviation for else if. We could have additional elif statements if needed.
Our program will evaluate in this order:
1) Variable guess is assigned to the value of 6
2) The if statement is evaluated to True and we print the statement in its body.
However, let's say your next guess is 9.
guess = 9
if guess < 9:
print("you guessed too low")
elif guess > 9:
print("you guessed too high")
else:
print("you're correct!")
you're correct!
Our program will evaluate in this order:
1) Variable guess is assigned to the value of 10
2) The if statement is evaluated to False so we don't proceed to its indented body
3) The elif statement is evaluated to False so we don't proceed to its indented body
4) Once reached, the else statement always evaluates to True so we proceed to its indented body and print that string.