How Do If Statements Work in Programming?

If statements are super important in programming. They let your code make choices based on different situations.

You can think of an if statement as asking a question: “Is this true?”

If the answer is “yes,” then the code inside the if statement will run. If the answer is “no,” the code will be skipped.

The Basic Structure of an If Statement

Here’s how an if statement usually looks:

if condition:
    # Code to run if the condition is true

Example:

Let’s say you are making a simple game where a player earns points. You can use an if statement to check if the player has scored enough points:

score = 10

if score >= 10:
    print("You won the game!")

In this example, if the score is 10 or more, the message "You won the game!" will show up.

Else and Elif

You can also make your choices bigger with else and elif (which means "else if"). This lets you check more than one situation.

if score >= 10:
    print("You won the game!")
elif score >= 5:
    print("You are nearly there!")
else:
    print("Keep trying!")

Summary

Using if statements helps your programs react in different ways based on the conditions you set. This makes your code more interesting and interactive, which is great for games and apps!