Control Structures

Musarrat Ahmed
Outline
● if, else, elif
● Conditional expression
● pass statement
● Loops
● break and continue
● else clause
if Statement
● In its simplest form, it looks like this:
- <expr> is an expression evaluated in Boolean context.
- <statement> is a valid Python statement, which must be
indented.
● If <expr> is true (evaluates to a value that is “truthy”), then <statement> is
executed else it is skipped over.
● Note that the colon (:) following <expr> is required.
● No parentheses should enclose <expr>.
4
Grouping Statements
● Python is one of a relatively small set of off-side rule languages, in which blocks
are defined by indentation.
● In a Python program, contiguous statements that are indented to the same level
are considered to be part of the same block.
● There is no token that denotes the end of the block.
● Rather, it is indicated by a line that is indented less than the lines of the block
itself.
● In the Python documentation, a group of statements
defined by indentation is often referred to as a suite.
“
 else and elif Clauses
- If <expr> is true, the first suite is executed, and the second is
skipped - If <expr> is false, the first suite is skipped and the second is
executed.
● If there’re several alternatives, elif clause is used.
● The else clause is optional. If it is present, there can be only one, and it must be
specified last.
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One-line if Statements
● It is permissible to write an entire if statement on one line.
● There can even be more than one <statement> on the same line, separated by
semicolons.
If <expr> is true, execute all of <statement_1> ... <statement_n> .
Otherwise, don’t execute any of them.

● Multiple statements may be specified on the

same line as an elif or else clause as well.
● PEP 8 specifically recommends against these
one-line if statements.
Conditional Expression
● Also referred to as a conditional operator or ternary operator.

● <conditional_expr> is evaluated first. If it is true, the

expression evaluates to <expr1>. If it is false,
the expression evaluates to <expr2>.
● Can be used as part of a longer expression.
● It has lower precedence than virtually all the other operators, so parentheses are
needed to group it by itself.
● It uses short-circuit evaluation.
pass Statement
● Because Python uses indentation instead of delimiters, it is not possible to specify
an empty block.
● If you introduce an if statement with if <expr>: , something has to come after
it, either on the same line or indented on the following line.

● pass statement solves this problem.

● It is used as a placeholder to keep the interpreter happy in any situation
where a statement is syntactically required, but you don’t really want
to do anything.
Loops in Python
for Loop
● Python’s for loop looks like this:
● <iterable> : collection of objects—for example, a list or tuple.
● <statement(s)> : denoted by indentation, executed once for each item in
<iterable>.
● <var> : loop variable that takes on the value of the next element in
<iterable> each time through the loop.
Iterables and Iterators
● Iterable means an object that can be used in iteration.
● If an object is iterable, it can be passed to the built-in function iter(), which
returns something called an iterator.
● Each of the objects in the following example is an iterable and returns some type
of iterator when passed to iter():
● An iterator is essentially a value producer that yields successive values from its
associated iterable object.
● The built-in function next() is used to obtain the next value from iterator.
● In the example, a is an iterable list and itr is the associated iterator, obtained
with iter(). Each next(itr) call obtains the next value from itr.
 ● If all the values from an iterator have been returned already, a subsequent
next() call raises a StopIteration exception.

● You can only obtain values from an iterator in one direction. You can’t go
backward. There is no prev() function.

● But you can define two independent iterators on the same iterable object.

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Working of for loop
● To carry out the iteration in for loop, Python does the following:
➔ Calls iter() to obtain an iterator for a
➔ Calls next() repeatedly to obtain each item
from the iterator in turn
➔ Terminates the loop when next() raises
the StopIteration exception
range()Function
● Python’s built-in range() function returns an iterable that yields a sequence of
integers.
● range(start, stop[, step])
while Loop
● The format of a rudimentary while loop is:
One-line while Loop
● A while loop can be specified on one line.
● Multiple statements in the block can be separated by semicolons.

● You can’t combine two compound statements into one line.

break and continue
● break statement immediately terminates a loop entirely. Program execution
proceeds to the first statement following the loop body.
● continue statement immediately terminates the current loop iteration. Execution
jumps to the top of the loop, and the controlling expression is re-evaluated to
determine whether the loop will execute again or terminate.
else Clause
● Python allows an optional else clause at the end of a while/for loop.
● The statement specified in the else clause will be executed when the while
loop terminates.
● Statements placed in an else clause will be executed only if the loop terminates
“by exhaustion”.
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Quiz Time
1. What is the output of this
code snippet? a) ('baz', 3)
('bar', 2)
('foo', 1)
Done.
b) foo
bar
baz
c) No output
d) Done.

Ans: (d)
2. What is the output of this code
snippet? a) d)

b)

c) No output

Ans: (a)
3. Which one of the following if
statements will not execute a)
successfully?

b)

c)

d)

Ans: (c)
4. Suppose you have the following
variables defined: Write a Python conditional
expression to assign the
smaller of a and b to the
variable m.
5. Which of the following are valid
if/else statements in Python, a)
assuming x and y are defined
appropriately?
b)

c)

d)

Ans: (a),(d)
6. What is value of this
expression? a) 'axyb'

b) 'ab'

c) 'axb'

d) 'ax'

Ans: (d)
7. What is the output of the
following code snippet? a) 123

b) 1 2 3

c) 1
2
3

d) Error

Ans: (d)
8. What is the output of the
following code snippet? a) 0 1 2 0

b) 0 1 2

c) 0
1
2

d) Error

Ans: (c)
Thank you!