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Esther Adebayo
Esther Adebayo

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Understanding Conditional Statements in JavaScript

Conditional statements execute specific actions from a code depending on whether the result of the code is true or false.

This means if a condition is true, a specific code runs and if false, another code runs.

If statement

The 'if' statement runs a specified code segment if the given result is ''true.''

This implies that the code block will be ignored in the case of a false result, and the code will move on to the next section.

let location = "outside";

if (location === "outside") {
  console.log("Wear your nose mask! 😷");
} 

//Output: Wear your nose mask! 😷
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Else statement

The 'else' statement is written after the if statement and executes the code if the result of the given condition is 'false'.

let location = "inside";

if (location === "outside") {
  console.log("Wear your nose mask! 😷");
} else {
  console.log("I don't need a nose mask πŸ˜ƒ");
}

//Output: I don't need a nose mask πŸ˜ƒ
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Else if statement

The 'else if' specifies another condition if the first condition is not true. They are used to add more conditions to an if/else statement.

let location = "inside";


if (location === "outside") {
  console.log("Wear your nose mask! 😷");
} else if (location === "inside") {
  console.log("I don't need a nose mask πŸ˜ƒ");
} else {
  console.log("Always protect yourself");
}

//Output: I don't need a nose mask πŸ˜ƒ
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Switch-case statement

This is a really cool way to execute different sets of statements based on the value of a variable. It is a neater version of multiple If-Else-If blocks.

A break is used between the cases & the default case gets evaluated when none of the cases are true

let location = "my room";


switch (location) {
  case "outside":
    console.log("Wear your nose mask!");
    break;
  case "my room":
    console.log("Yaay, I can relax πŸ’†");
    break;
  default:
    console.log("Always protect yourself!");
}


//Output: Yaay, I can relax πŸ’†
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Ternary Operator

The ternary operator is a shorthand syntax for an if/else statement.

The first expression after the ? executes when the condition evaluates to true, and the second expression after : executes when the condition evaluates to false.

const location = "outside";

location === "outside"
  ? console.log("Wear your nose mask! 😷")
  : console.log("Always protect yourself!");

Output: Wear your nose mask! 😷
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Thanks for reading. I hope you learned a thing or two. Which of these conditionals do you use?

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