if
, elif
and else
statements in python allow us to perform different tasks depending on certain conditions.
These are also known as conditional statements because they decide which statements should run and which should not.
Verbally: “Hey, if this happens then perform this action.”
Syntax:
The general syntax of if
, elif
and else
statements are as follows:
if <condition1>:
perform this statement1
elif <codition2>:
perform this statement2
elif <codition3>:
perform this statement3
...
else:
perform this last statement
The elif
and else
statements are optional, so if we don’t want any other statement to execute (in case the condition doesn’t satisfy), we can use single if
statement alone.
We can write multiple elif
statements with different conditions, but there can be a maximum of one else
statement at the end of one group of if-else logic.
Let’s see some examples to learn different combinations of if
, elif
, and else
statements in Python.
Example 1: if and else
Let’s say if a student passes the examination if he or she gets more than or equal to 40 marks otherwise fails. This is how we can represent it in python using if and else:
if marks >= 40:
print("Pass")
else:
print("Fail")
Example 2: if with True condition
if True:
print("This is Inside of IF") #output: This is Inside of IF
Example 3: if, elif and else
x=3
if x==2:
print("value of x is 2")
elif x==3:
print("value of x is 3")
else:
print("value of x is not matching")
Output: value of x is 3
Example 4: if with multiple elif
def greet(role): if role == "prime minister": print("Hello Sir!") elif role == "soldier": print("Yes Sir!") elif role == "programmer": print("I can hack NASA with HTML!") greet("programmer")
Output:
Output: I can hack NASA with HTML!
Characteristics of if-else in Python
- The
if
statement allows the computer to perform some action. - The
elif
statement is executed if the above statements are false. - The
else
statement is executed only if all the above conditions (includingif
andelif
) are false.
Tip: Use if-elif-else when only one of the given tasks/statements should need to be executed depending on certain conditions.