Flow control

Conditional statements
Sequential flow

Statement 1
Python read and execute each statement
in the script file sequentially = line by line
Until the end of the file
Statement 2

....

Statement n
if statements

 Often to solve a problem one may or must

control the flow
 Check if certain conditions are met
if statements

 Often to solve a problem one may or must

control the flow
 Check if certain conditions are met

Example:
x=2
y=0
z=0
z=x/y
print ('z=',z)
if statements

 Often to solve a problem one may or must

control the flow
 Check if certain conditions are met

Example:
x=2
y=0 ERROR:
z=0 ZeroDivisionError
z=x/y
print ('z=',z)
if statements

x=2
y=0 To avoid this error we have to check:
z=0 if y is not equal to 0
z=x/y before to execute the statement: z=x/y

print ('z=',z)
if statement constructs - general syntax

if condition is True:
Statement 1
…
Statement N
if statement constructs - general syntax

if condition is True: The if block

Statement 1
if statement, condition is
…
evaluated first.
Statement N
If condition is true (if its value is
nonzero) then the statement(s)
block are executed. Otherwise,
the next statement following the
statement(s) block is executed.
if statement constructs - general syntax

if condition is True:
Statement 1
…
Statement N
if statement constructs - general syntax

Indentation
if condition is True: Could be space/tab
Statement 1
At least 1 space or 1 tab
…
Statement N Every Statement in the block
Must start at the same column

All the statements indented by the same number of character spaces/tab after a
programming construct are considered to be part of a single block of code.

Python uses indentation as its method of grouping statements.

How to evaluate if it isTrue or False

Operators that return Boolean values:

== equal
!= not-equal
< less than
<= less than or equal
> greater than
>= greater than or equal

Example:
a == b
a<b
Operators - Logical Operations

The classic Boolean operators are

not, and, and or.

Can be combined with the comparison

operators
Logical Operators - Example

x = 4
y = 3

The expression: x < 8 gives True

The expression: y != 3 gives False

The expression x<8 and y==3 gives True

(True and True)
Truth Table for Basic Logical Operators

Condition Α Condition B Α or Β Α and Β not A

True True True True False

True False True False False

False True True False True

False False False False True

if statements

x=2 To avoid this error we have to check:

y=0 if y is not equal to 0
z=0 before to execute the statement: z=x/y
z=x/y
print ('z=',z)
x=2
y=0
z=0
Gives:
If y != 0:
z=0
z=x/y
print('z=',z)
if - else statements

else statement can be used with if optionally.

If condition specified in if statement is False statement(s) after
else will be executed

if condition is True:
Statement 1
Statement 2
else:
Statement 3
Statement 4
if - else statements

x=2
y=0
z=0
if y != 0:
z=x/y
else:
print ('div by 0 not possible')
Print('z=',z)

Gives:
div by 0 not possible
 if - elif - else statements

The elif statement stand for “else if”

elif Allows you to check multiple expressions for truth value and
execute a block of code as soon as one of the conditions
evaluates to true.

Like the else, the elif statement is optional.

However, unlike else, for which there can be at most one

statement, there can be an arbitrary number of elif statements
following an if.
if - elif - else statements

if condition1 is True:
Statement 1
Statement 2
elif condition2 is True:
Statement 3
Statement 4
elif condition3 is True:
Statement 5
Statement 6
else:
Statement 7
Some notes about the code

Only one of the condition if or elif will be met and hence

only one of the circumstances will be executes

If none of the conditions are met then the else

circumstance is executed.
if - elif - else statements

x=10
if x>30:
print ('x is big')
elif x==10:
print ('x equal to 10')
elif x<=0:
print ('x is 0 or negative')
else:
print ('other')
print ('bye')

Gives: x equal to 10
bye
if - elif - else statements

if x>30:
print ('x is big')
elif x==10:
print ('x equal to 10')
elif x<=0:
print ('x is 0 or negative')
else:
print ('other')
print ('bye')

x = 35
What is the result in
x = 7 each case?
x = -15
if within an if – Nested ifs

In some cases if may be necessary to have an if

statement nested within another:

if condition1 is True:
Statement 1
if condition2 is True:
Statement 2
if within an if – Nested ifs
x = 100
if x < 200:
print ('x value is less than 200')
if x == 100:
print ('Which is 100')
elif x == 50:
print ('Which is 50')
elif x < 50:
print ('x value is less than 50')
else:
print ('Could not find true expression')
print ('bye')
if within an if – Nested ifs
x = 100
if x < 200:
The if block
print ('x value is less than 200')
if x == 100:
print ('Which is 100')
elif x == 50:
print ('Which is 50')
elif x < 50:
print ('x value is less than 50')
else:
print ('Could not find true expression')
print ('bye')
if within an if – Nested ifs
x = 100
if x < 200:
The nested
print ('x value is less than 200')
if x == 100:
if block
print ('Which is 100')
elif x == 50:
print ('Which is 50')
elif x < 50:
print ('x value is less than 50')
else:
print ('Could not find true expression')
print ('bye')
Gives:
x value is less than 200
Which is 100
bye!
if statements characters based (string)

All logical operators can be used BUT we will use only:

'==' 2 strings are equal (identical character by character)
'!=' 2 strings are not equal

Two additional operators :

In string is substring of another one
not in string is not a substring of another one
if statements characters based (string)

str1='Monty Python spam script'

str2='spam'

If str1 == str2:
Print 'str1 equal str2'
if str2 in str1:
print (str2+' is in the string:'+str1)
else:
print ('is not..')
print ('bye!')
Gives:
spam is in the string:Monty Python spam script
bye!