Conditional Statements in Java

Conditional statements in a computer program support decisions based on a certain condition. If the condition is met, or "true," a certain piece of code is executed.

For example, you want to convert user-entered text to lowercase. Execute the code only if the user entered capitalized text. If not, you don't want to execute the code because it will lead to a runtime error.

There are two main conditional statements used in Java: the if-then and if-then-else statements, and the switch statement.

The If-Then and If-Then-Else Statements

The most basic flow control statement in Java is if-then: if [something] is true, do [something]. This statement is a good choice for simple decisions. The basic structure of an if statement starts with the word "if," followed by the statement to test, followed by curly braces that wrap the action to take if the statement is true. It looks like this:

if ( statement ) {// do something here....}

This statement can also be extended to do something else if the condition is false:

if ( statement ) { // do something here...}
else {// do something else...}

For example, if you are determining whether someone is old enough to drive, you might have a statement that says "if your age is 16 or older, you can drive; else, you cannot drive."

int age = 17;
if age >= 16 {System.out.println("You can drive.");}
else {System.out.println("You are not old enough to drive.")

Read More

If-Then and If-Then-Else Conditional Statements in Java

By Paul Leahy

There is no limit to the number of else statements you can add. 

Conditional Operators

In the example above, we used a single operator. These are the standard operators you can use:

• equal to: =
• less than: <
• more than: >
• greater than or equal to: >=
• less than or equal to: >=

In addition to these, there are four more operators used with conditional statements:

• and: &&
• not:! 
• or: ||
• is equal to: == 

For example, the driving age is considered to be from age 16 to age 85, in which case the AND operator can be used.

else if ( age > 16 && age < 85 )

This will return true only if both conditions are met. The operators NOT, OR, and IS EQUAL TO can be used in a similar way.

The Switch Statement

The switch statement provides an effective way to deal with a section of code that could branch in multiple directions based on a single variable. It does not support the conditional operators the if-then statement does, nor can it handle multiple variables. It is, however, a preferable choice when the condition will be met by a single variable because it can improve performance and is easier to maintain.

 Here's an example:

switch ( single_variable ) {case value://code_here;
break;
case value://code_here;
break;
default://set a default;}

Note that you start with the switch, provide a single variable and then set out your choices using the term case. The keyword break completes each case of the switch statement. The default value is optional, but good practice.

For example, this switch prints the lyric of the song Twelve Days of Christmas given a provided day.

int day = 5;

String lyric = ""; // empty string to hold the lyric

switch (day) {case 1:

lyric = "A partridge in a pear tree.";
break;
case 2:
lyric = "2 turtle doves";
break;
case 3:
lyric = "3 French hens";
break;
case 4:
lyric = "4 calling birds";
break;
case 5:
lyric = "5 gold rings";
break;
case 6:
lyric = "6 geese-a-laying";
break;
case 7:
lyric = "7 swans-a-swimming";
break;
case 8:
lyric = "8 maids-a-milking";
break;
case 9:
lyric = "9 ladies dancing";
break;
case 10:
lyric = "10 Lords-a-leaping";
break;
case 11:
lyric = "11 pipers piping";
break;
case 12:
lyric = "12 drummers drumming";
break;
default:
lyric = "There are only 12 days.";
break;
}
System.out.println(lyric);

In this example, the value to test is an integer. Java SE 7 and later support a string object in the expression. For example:
String day = "second";
String lyric = ""; // empty string to hold the lyric

switch (day) {
case "first":
lyric = "A partridge in a pear tree.";
break;
case "second":
lyric = "2 turtle doves";
break;
case "third":
lyric = "3 French hens";
break;
// etc.