In life we often face conditions. Our parents may have made conditions like, "If you don't come home on time, I won't let you go on any more mountain climbing expeditions." "If you take out the trash then I will give you some strawberries and whipped cream." In school we may face conditions too; "If your grade point average is over 90 you will be exempt from the final exam." A condition means that if a certain state of affairs occurs, then a certain result will happen. There can also be negative conditions (like the first one above): if something does not occur, then a certain result will happen.
In all of these statements there is the condition part ( "If you take out the trash" ) and the result part ( "then I will give you some strawberries and whipped cream"). When deciding whether the result should be brought about, we have to decide if the condition has been met. In real world conditions we set up an expected state of affairs and then see if the actual reality conforms to that expectation. This is called testing whether reality conforms to our expectation. This same concept exists in computer science. We say that we have to test if a condition has been met. If it has been met then the condition is said to be true. If it has not been met the condition is false. For example, if you do take out the trash then the condition is true and you get the strawberries. But if you don't take out the trash, the condition is false and you won't get the strawberries. We can generalize and say conditional statements are of the form
If some condition is true
then some result occurs.
But whereas in the real world we compare some real action or thing with some expected action or thing, in computer science we don't have real actions. What we have are variables (containing numbers) and literals (actual numbers). So in order to create a condition we need to compare one or more of these variables or literals to another variable or literal. This comparison relationship is our test condition.
When comparing variables in C++ we use 3 basic comparison or testing operators. These are the greater than operator ( > ), the less than operator ( < ) and the equals operator ( == ). Note that we use two = symbols to distingush the equals operator from the assignment operator which is one = symbol.
But how exactly do we set up the comparison so that the code we want will be executed if the condition is true? To do this we use the keyword if . With the help of the keyword if we can write a line of code in which we say that if and only if a certain condition is true then execute the following commands.
If we wanted to test if some variable was larger than 10 we would write
if ( someVariable > 10 )If we wanted to test if it was smaller than 10 we would write
if ( someVariable < 10 )And if we wanted to test if some variable was equal to 10 we would write
if ( someVariable == 10 )In all of these example, we have an if followed by a condition which is inside a set of parenthesis ( ). But how do we tell the computer what to do when this condition is true? For this we use a set of braces { } immediately following the if. Such a section of code inside braces is called a block of code or a code block. For example,
if ( someVariable == 10 )In the above code segment, the line cout << "The number is 10!"; is a block of code. In this example, if someVariable is equal to 10, then the message The number is 10! will be printed. I can also have multiple lines inside the braces. In such a case, if the condition is true, all the lines will be executed. If the condition is not true, then the computer will skip the entire section inside the braces and continue executing the program from after the close brace }.
{
cout << "The number is 10!";
}
Let's see another example of using if.
int mySalary;Try asking yourself, What is the condition? Is the condition true or not? . . . . The condition is "mySalary < 1000". This translates into English as "Is the variable mySalary less than 1000." If mySalary is less than 1000, then the condition is true. But if mySalary is not less than 1000, then we have to admit that the condition is not true. In our case, we initialized the variable mySalary to the value 1200. Is our testing condition true? The condition is not true. Since the condition is not true, the computer will skip over the lines inside the opening and closing braces { } . Therefore the lines:
mySalary = 1200;
if (mySalary < 1000)
{
cout << "The salary is";
cout << "smaller than $1000. Give him a raise." << endl;
mySalary = 2000;
}
cout << "Now the salary is";
cout << "not smaller than $1000";
cout << "The salary is";will not be executed. They will be skipped. So we see how the condition works. The condition causes us to skip or not skip the print-out depending on whether the condition is false or true.
cout << "smaller than $1000. Give him a raise.";
mySalary = 2000;
The above example is really too simple to be of any real interest. Since mySalary will always be 1200, therefore the lines inside the braces will never be executed. Later we will see examples in which the variable will change its value and therefore the condition will sometimes be true, and sometimes false. (Can you think of a way of combining what we have learned about user interfaces to allow mySalary to vary? Try it out.)
The two lines at the end, namely:
cout<<"Now the salary is";will always execute (whether the condition is true or false). Why is this? The reason is that the only section of code that is skipped is the section that lies between the braces. Since there is a closing brace before these two lines, they are not within the condition and are therefore not skipped. They will be executed regardless of whether the condition is true or false. These lines will write the words "Now the salary is not smaller than $1000" onto the screen.
cout<< "not smaller than $1000";
Now we can ask does this program make sense? Should we print the words "Now the salary is not smaller than $1000" always? In our example the variable is 1200 so it does make sense to print "Now the number is not smaller than 1000." since this is true. But what if myNumber had a different value, say 50 ? If the variable is smaller than 1000 then it would be wrong to write "Now the salary is not smaller than $1000" on the screen. But if you look carefully at the example, you will see that if the condition is true, then mySalary gets a new value. It gets the value 2000. So therefore, by the time the program prints the sentence "Now the salary is not smaller than $1000" on the screen, mySalary would actually be 2000, so the message is true no matter what mySalary is to start with. It would be nice if salaries could be raised like this.
Sometimes in life we have more complicated conditions. We have two sided conditions. For example I might say, "If today is rainy I will stay indoors, otherwise I will play football." This statement means that only if today is rainy will I stay indoors, but if today is not rainy then I will play football. So, logically if the day is sunny I will play football. But also if the day is not sunny, say it is cloudy but not rainy, then also I will play football. If the day is cold I will also play football. Even if the day is hailing and snowy I will play football. My condition stated that only if the day is rainy will I stay indoors and not play football. That is the meaning of otherwise. Otherwise means, "in all other conditions" I will play football. In C++ we use the keyword else to mean otherwise (mostly because it is shorter).
A simple programming example in English of the if else combination would be the following:
If variable is greater than 2,500,000,000 print "Number is too large", else print "Number is an acceptable size."(The above English is also called pseudo-code because it is English which resembles computer languages or codes, but is not any specific computer language.)
if (variable > 2500000000)Notice that the else also uses braces { } the same way the if uses them. In this example, only one of the two sentences will be printed. Which sentence gets printed depends on whether the condition of the if is true. If the condition is true, then the first sentence will be printed, otherwise ( or else ) the second sentence will be printed. In any case, both sentences will never be printed in the same run of this test condition. The program has two options of what to print and the option will be selected in accordance with the truth or falsehood of the condition in the if statement.
{
cout<<"Number is too large.";
}
else
{
cout<<"Number is acceptable size.";
}
In C++ there is also a keyword true and a keyword false.
The keyword true is always true in a condition statement and
false is always false in a condition statement.
Further more any non-zero value is considered true in a condition statement. Zero is considered false but the numbers 7, -7, -514, 8900 and 1 are all
considered true.
Therefore,
if(true)
is always a true condition. And furthermore,
if(1)
is also true.
You can also use the not operator ( ! ) to achieve the opposite
from the normal true/false results. For example,
if(!true)
will never be a true condition. And so too
if(!1)
is also not true.
In addition to the primitive data types we have used already, there is a primitive data type called bool which can be assigned true or false , or 0 or 1. Bool is like int, but it cannot have thousands of different values, it can only have two possible values: either 0 or 1 . Bool is useful as a variable in condition statements. I can use a bool like this
bool someVariable = 0; Right!
bool someVariable = 1; Right!
bool someVariable = true; Right!
bool someVariable = 2; Wrong! someVariable will get the value 1 instead of 2 since 1 is the maximum value a bool can hold.
bool someVariable = -1; Wrong!
if (someVariable) Right!
if (someVariable==true) Right!
Ifs can be nested one in side the other. For example, let's say that in order to get a driver's license in Israel you must be over 18 years old and you must pass a test. How would I express this with an if ? One if is not enough since I have two conditions. (Later we will see that you can actually combine two conditions into one if statement) Therefore, in our case I need to use two ifs as follows:
int age = 16;
bool passTest = true;
if(age > 17 )
{
if(passTest)
{
cout<<"Congratulations, you will get you license.";
}
else
{
cout<<"Your are old enough, but you didn't pass the test. Sorry.";
}
}
else
{
if(passTest)
{
cout<<"You passed the test, but you aren't old enough. Sorry.";
}
else
{
cout<<"You didn't passed the test, and you aren't old enough. Sorry.";
}
}
Read the above example carefully. The text lines outputted explain
what each case is.
Notice how I indented each time I made a new block of code. I did this
for better readability. You should always indent in this way.
You can see graphically how there are if/else structures within each of the
outer if and else sections.
Thus, in the if part of the outer if/else there is a complete
if/else structure. And in the outer else there is a complete
if/else structure. Since one set of
if/elses is within another set, one is said to be nested within the other.
(I believe the term nesting derives from the fact that bowls (or birds' nests)
can be placed one inside the other, provided the inner
ones are a little bit smaller than the outer ones.)
These are nested if/elses.
You should notice that there are four possible cases when we have two
conditions. I have written the logical output for each case. In my example,
the person passed the test but was too young. He will be told,
"You passed the test, but you aren't old enough. Sorry."
In addition to > and < there is also the possibility of testing greater than or equal >= to and less than or equal to <= . You can use these when you want to include the equals possibility. For example,
The not operator ( ! ) can also be used to express the idea of two things not being equal. For example, if I wanted to test if a certain variable is not equal to zero I could write this:
if(variable != 0)Notice that in this case I write only one = symbol, not ==. !== is incorrect. By the way, I could make the same condition by writing simply
if(variable)since all non-zero values are considered true, both these statements are equivalent. Both condition statements are true for values like 7, 8 and -300 (7 is not zero, and 7 is a true value).
I can also use the not operator in conjuction with entire conditions. For example, say I want to test for number greater than 10. The best way to do this is by writing something like this:
if(variable > 10)But I could also write
if (!(variable <= 10))Notice how I put the ! in front of the condition. Read such a statement as "if variable is not less than or equal to 10." This can get confusing, but with practice you can get used to it. In such a case you should just write the first version since it is clearer, but sometimes it is clearer if you negate some condition as in the second version.
Sometimes you may need to combine two or more conditions. Let's say you want to test if a certain variable is betweem 1 and 100. For this problem you need to make two tests: Is the variable greater than 1? And, is the variable less than 100? Only if both conditions are true is the condition true. To combine two conditions in this way I need to use the logical and operator. It works like this:
if (variable > 1 && variable < 100)Notice how I use two and ( & ) symbols. Using one would be a mistake. One and symbol is called the bitwise and operator and we will learn to use it in a later chapter. The above example should be read like this "if variable is greater than 1 and variable is also less than 100." For clarity's sake, you should group the two parts of the condition with parenthesis like this:
if ( (variable > 1 ) && (variable < 100) )Not only is this more clear for you to read, it will also help prevent logical errors.
I can use the && operator to combine any conditions that I choose. Therefore, I can also combine conditions involving different variables. For example, I may want to give a grade of 'A' to any student who has an average of 90% or more and attendence over 75%. I would write this condition like this:
if ( (average >= 90) && (attendence > 75) )
Since there is a logical and operator, there is also a logical or operator. It looks like this || . We use this when we want to combine two or more conditions and to check if any one of them is true. Say for example, I need to check if a certain variable is either 1 or 7 or 14. I would use the logical or operator like this:
if ( (variable == 1 ) || (variable == 7) || (variable == 14) )
All of these operators can be combined in any number of ways. You can use the not operator on all of them too. Try to express your conditions in the simplest form. The best condition statements can be read quickly by a normal person. Do not try to confuse your reader or yourself. As we have seen, we use conditions in C++ programming when there are parts of our program that should be skipped in certain circumstances and not skipped in others. We previously learned that computer programs execute operations in sequence. This means that the computer will execute one command after another, going down the page. But when we want do to certain lines of code only if a certain condition holds true we set up a condition test. Skipping lines of code in this way is called altering program flow. It is called altering program flow because it allows a program to have two entirely different sequences, or program flows. In one sequence, certain code is skipped over and in the other sequence, the code is not skipped. Ultimately, this is the function of condition statements.
Here is a table of all the condition operators and their meanings.
| Operator | Meaning |
| == | is equal to |
| != | is not equal to |
| > | greater than |
| < | less than |
| >= | greater than or equal to |
| <= | less than or equal to |
| && | and |
| || | or |