An “if statement” in Java is a type of control flow statement that allows the programmer to specify a certain block of code to be executed if a certain condition is met. The syntax of an “if statement” in Java is as follows:
if (condition) {
// code to be executed if the condition is true
}
The condition in an “if statement” is an expression that evaluates to a boolean value (either “true” or “false”). If the condition is true, the code inside the curly braces will be executed. If the condition is false, the code inside the curly braces will be skipped and the program will continue to the next statement.
It’s important to note that the condition inside the parentheses of the “if statement” must always be a boolean expression. If the expression evaluates to any other data type, Java will throw a compile-time error.
In addition to the basic “if statement”, Java also provides a variation of the “if statement” called the “if-else statement”. The “if-else statement” allows the programmer to specify a certain block of code to be executed if the condition is true and a different block of code to be executed if the condition is false. The syntax of the “if-else statement” in Java is as follows:
if (condition) {
// code to be executed if the condition is true
} else {
// code to be executed if the condition is false
}
It's also possible to chain multiple "if-else statements" together to create more complex conditional logic. For example:
if (condition1) {
// code to be executed if condition1 is true
} else if (condition2) {
// code to be executed if condition1 is false and condition2 is true
} else {
// code to be executed if both condition1 and condition2 are false
}
In conclusion, the “if statement” and “if-else statement” are important control flow statements in Java that allow the programmer to specify different blocks of code to be executed based on a certain condition. By using “if statements”, it’s possible to create more sophisticated programs that can make decisions based on the data they receive.
