Chapter 5: Control Statements in C

Branching (Decision making)

5.0 if statement
5.1 if...else statement
5.2 Ladder if statement (the if...else if...else Statement)
5.3 Nested if statements
5.4 switch statement
5.5 Nested switch statements
5.6 The ? : Operator

When we run a program, the statements are executed in the order in which
they appear in the program. Also each statement is executed only once. But
in many cases we may need a statement or a set of statements to be
executed a fixed no of times or until a condition is satisfied .Also we may
want to skip some statements based on testing a condition. For all these we
use control statements.
Control statements are of two types:
 Decision Making (Branching)
 Looping

Decision making (Branching)

Decision-making statements in programming languages decide the
direction of the flow of program execution. Branching structures require that
the programmer specify one or more conditions to be evaluated or tested by
the program, along with a statement or statements to be executed if the
condition is determined to be true, and optionally, other statements to be
executed if the condition is determined to be false. Decision-making
statements available in C or C++ are:
 if statement
 if...else statement
 Ladder if statement ( if...else if...else statement)
 Nested if statements
 switch statement
 Nested switch statements
 The ? : Operator

5.0 if statement

An if statement consists of a boolean expression followed by one or more

statements.

Syntax
The syntax of an if statement in C programming language is:
if(boolean_expression)
{ Can
/* statement(s) will execute if the boolean expression is true */
}

If the boolean expression evaluates to true, then the block of code inside
the if statement will be executed. If boolean expression evaluates to false,
then the first set of code after the end of the if statement (after the closing
curly brace) will be executed.

C programming language assumes any non-zero and non-null values as

true and if it is either zero or null then it is assumed as false value.
Example

#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
/* local variable definition */
int a = 10;
/* check the boolean condition using if statement */
if( a < 20 )
{
/* if condition is true then print the following */
printf("a is less than 20\n" );
}
printf("value of a is : %d\n", a);
return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:
a is less than 20;
value of a is : 10

5.1 if...else statement

An if statement can be followed by an optional else statement, which

executes when the boolean expression is false.

Syntax

The syntax of an if...else statement in C programming language is:

if(boolean_expression)
{
/* statement(s) will execute if the boolean expression is true */
}
else
{
/* statement(s) will execute if the boolean expression is false */
}

If the boolean expression evaluates to true, then the if block of code will be
executed, otherwise else block of code will be executed.
C programming language assumes any non-zero and non-null values as
true and if it is either zero or null then it is assumed as false value.

Example

#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
/* local variable definition */
int a = 100;
/* check the boolean condition */
if( a < 20 )
{
/* if condition is true then print the following */
printf("a is less than 20\n" );
}
else
{
/* if condition is false then print the following */
printf("a is not less than 20\n" );
}
printf("value of a is : %d\n", a);
return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:
a is not less than 20;
value of a is : 100
5.2 Ladder if statement ( if...else if...else Statement)
Here, a user can decide among multiple options. The C if statements are
executed from the top down. As soon as one of the conditions controlling
the if is true, the statement associated with that if is executed, and the rest
of the C else-if ladder is bypassed. If none of the conditions are true, then
the final else statement will be executed.
When using if , else if , else statements there are few points to keep in
mind:

 An if can have zero or one else's and it must come after any else if's.
 An if can have zero to many else if's and they must come before the
else.
 Once an else if succeeds, none of the remaining else if's or else's
will be tested.

Syntax

The syntax of an if...else if...else statement in C programming language is:

if(boolean_expression 1)
{
/* Executes when the boolean expression 1 is true */
}
else if( boolean_expression 2)
{
/* Executes when the boolean expression 2 is true */
}
else if( boolean_expression 3)
{
/* Executes when the boolean expression 3 is true */
}
else
{
/* executes when the none of the above condition is true */
}

Example

#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
/* local variable definition */
int a = 100;
/* check the boolean condition */
if( a == 10 )
{
/* if condition is true then print the following */
printf("Value of a is 10\n" );
}
else if( a == 20 )
{
/* if else if condition is true */
printf("Value of a is 20\n" );
}
else if( a == 30 )
{
/* if else if condition is true */
printf("Value of a is 30\n" );
}
else
{
/* if none of the conditions is true */
printf("None of the values is matching\n" );
}
printf("Exact value of a is: %d\n", a );
return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:
None of the values is matching
Exact value of a is: 100
5.3 Nested if statements

It is always legal in C programming to nest if-else statements, which means

you can use one if or else if statement inside another if or else if
statement(s).

Syntax

The syntax for a nested if statement is as follows:

if( boolean_expression 1)
{
/* Executes when the boolean expression 1 is true */
if(boolean_expression 2)
{
/* Executes when the boolean expression 2 is true */
}
}
You can nest else if...else in the similar way as you have nested if
statement.

Example

#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
/* local variable definition */
int a = 100;
int b = 200;
/* check the boolean condition */
if( a == 100 )
{
/* if condition is true then check the following */
if( b == 200 )
{
/* if condition is true then print the following */
printf("Value of a is 100 and b is 200\n" );
}
}
printf("Exact value of a is : %d\n", a );
printf("Exact value of b is : %d\n", b );
return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:
Value of a is 100 and b is 200
Exact value of a is : 100
Exact value of b is : 200

5.4 switch statement

The switch statement in C is an alternate to if-else-if ladder statement which

allows us to execute multiple operations for the different possibles values of
a single variable called switch variable. Here, we can define various
statements in the multiple cases for the different values of a single variable.

Syntax
The syntax for a switch statement in C programming language is as follows:

switch(expression){
case constant-expression :
statement(s);
break; /* optional */
case constant-expression :
statement(s);
break; /* optional */
/* you can have any number of case statements */
default : /* Optional */
statement(s);
}

The following rules apply to a switch statement:

 The switch expression must be of an integer or character type.

 The case value must be an integer or character constant.
 The case value can be used only inside the switch statement.
 The break statement in switch case is not must. It is optional. If there is
no break statement found in the case, all the cases will be executed
present after the matched case. It is known as fall through the state of
C switch statement.
 You can have any number of case statements within a switch. Each
case is 0followed by the value to be compared to and a colon.
 The constant-expression for a case must be the same data type as
the variable in the switch, and it must be a constant or a literal.
 When the variable being switched on is equal to a case, the statements
following that case will execute until a break statement is reached.
 When a break statement is reached, the switch terminates, and the
flow of control jumps to the next line following the switch statement.
 A switch statement can have an optional default case, which must
appear at the end of the switch. The default case can be used for
performing a task when none of the cases is true. No break is needed
in the default case.

Example

#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
/* local variable definition */
char grade ;
switch(grade)
{
case 'A' :
printf("Excellent!\n" );
break;
case 'B' :
case 'C' :
printf("Well done\n" );
break;
case 'D' :
printf("You passed\n" );
break;
case 'F' :
printf("Better try again\n" );
break;
default :
printf("Invalid grade\n" );
}
printf("Your grade is %c\n", grade );
return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:
Well done
Your grade is B

5.5 Nested switch statements

It is possible to have a switch as part of the statement sequence of an
outer switch. Even if the case constants of the inner and outer switch
contain common values, no conflicts will arise.

Syntax
The syntax for a nested switch statement is as follows:

switch(ch1) {
case 'A':
printf("This A is part of outer switch" );
switch(ch2) {
case 'A':
printf("This A is part of inner switch" );
break;
case 'B': /* case code */
}
break;
case 'B': /* case code */
}

Example

#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
/* local variable definition */
int a = 100;
int b = 200;
switch(a) {
case 100:
printf("This is part of outer switch\n", a );
switch(b) {
case 200:
printf("This is part of inner switch\n", a );
}
}
printf("Exact value of a is : %d\n", a );
printf("Exact value of b is : %d\n", b );
return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:
This is part of outer switch
This is part of inner switch
Exact value of a is : 100
Exact value of b is : 200

5.6 The ? : Operator (Conditional Operator)

We have covered conditional operator ? : in previous chapter which can be

used to replace if...else statements. It has the following general form:

Exp1 ? Exp2 : Exp3;

Where Exp1, Exp2, and Exp3 are expressions. Notice the use and placement
of the colon.
The value of a ? expression is determined like this: Exp1 is evaluated. If it is
true, then Exp2 is evaluated and becomes the value of the entire ?
expression. If Exp1 is false, then Exp3 is evaluated and its value becomes
the value of the expression. E.g.
(age>=18)? (printf("eligible for voting")) : (printf("not eligible for voting"));