A Python 2.7 programming tutorial

The purpose of an if statement is to perform certain actions only in certain cases.

Here is the general form of a simple “one-branch” if statement. In this case, if some condition C is true, we want to execute some sequence of statements, but if C is not true, we don't want to execute those statements.

if C:
    statement1
    statement2
    ...

Here is a picture showing the flow of control through a simple if statement. Old-timers will recognize this as a flowchart.

There can be any number of statements after the if, but they must all be indented, and all indented the same amount. This group of statements is called a block.

When the if statement is executed, the condition C is evaluated, and converted to a bool value (if it isn't already Boolean). If that value is True, the block is executed; if the value is False, the block is skipped.

Here's an example:

>>> half = 0.5
>>> if half > 0:
...     print "Half is better than none."
...     print "Burma!"
... 
Half is better than none.
Burma!

Sometimes you want to do some action A when C is true, but perform some different action B when C is false. The general form of this construct is:

if C:
    block A
    ...
else:
    block B
    ...

As with the single-branch if, the condition C is evaluated and converted to Boolean. If the result is True, block A is executed; if False, block B is executed instead.

>>> half = 0.5
>>> if half > 0:
...     print "Half is more than none."
... else:
...     print "Half is not much."
...     print "Ni!"
... 
Half is more than none.

Some people prefer a more “horizontal” style of coding, where more items are put on the same line, so as to take up less vertical space. If you prefer, you can put one or more statements on the same line as the if or else, instead of placing them in an indented block. Use a semicolon “;” to separate multiple statements. For example, the above example could be expressed on only two lines:

>>> if half > 0: print "Half is more than none."
... else: print "Half is not much."; print "Ni!"
... 
Half is more than none.

Sometimes you want to execute only one out of three or four or more blocks, depending on several conditions. For this situation, Python allows you to have any number of “elif clauses” after an if, and before the else clause if there is one. Here is the most general form of a Python if statement:

if C1:
    block1
elif C2:
    block2
elif C3:
    block3
...
else:
    blockF
    ...

So, in general, an if statement can have zero or more elif clauses, optionally followed by an else clause. Example:

>>> i = 2
>>> if i==1: print "One"
... elif i==2: print "Two"
... elif i==3: print "Three"
... else: print "Many"
... 
Two

You can have blocks within blocks. Here is an example:

>>> x = 3
>>> if  x >= 0:
...     if (x%2) == 0:
...         print "x is even"
...     else:
...         print "x is odd"
... else:
...     print "x is negative"
... 
x is odd