Chapter 6

Decision Making and Branching

What is decision making and branching ?
 A ‘C’ program is a set of statements which are normally
executed sequentially in the order in which they
appear .
 However sometimes we need to change the order of
execution of the statements based on certain
conditions .
 The statements which help us to change the order of
execution are called as decision making and branching
statements.
Types of Branching statements
 The various branching statements available in C programming
language are broadly classified into :
 Conditional Branching statements
 Here the execution shifts to the desired statement
depending upon the evaluation of the conditional
expression.
 The conditional expression usually consists of logical and
relational operations which is evaluated to either zero
(false) or non-zero(true)

 Examples for Conditional branching statements are:

 if statement
 switch statement
Types of Branching statements cont ….
Unconditional Branching statements
 Unlike the conditional statements, here the statement
execution shifts unconditionally to another part of
the program.
 i.e. there is no evaluation of any conditional
expression to zero or non zero.
 There are also known as jump statements.
 Examples for Unconditional branching statements
are:
 goto statement
 break statement
 continue statement
 return statement
If Statement
 The if statement is a powerful decision making
statement. It is basically a two-way Decision making
statement.
 The if statement may be implemented in different
forms depending on the complexity of the problem .
 Simple if statement
 if…..else statement
 Nested if…..else statement
 else…if ladder
Simple if statement
 The general form of simple if statement is as following
 if(conditional-expression)
{
statement-block ;
}
statement-x ;
In the above example
 if the ‘conditional-expression’ results into true then the statement-
block’ will be executed.
 otherwise the ‘statement-block’ will be skipped and the control will
jump to the ‘statement –x’.

when the ‘conditional-expression’ results true then both the

‘statement-block’ and ‘statement–x’ will executed sequentially.
Flowchart for simple if statement
C program to demonstrate if statement
/* A program to understand the SIMPLE if STATEMENT */
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
int num;

printf("Enter the value for num : ");

scanf("%d",&num);
There is no semi colon after
if(num%2==0) if statement
{
printf(“Number %d is an even number",num);
}
}
if …else statement
The general form of if….else statement is as following:
if(conditional-expression)
{
statement-block 1 ;
}
else
{
statement-block 2 ;
}
if …else statement cont…
 In if…else statement
 If the ‘conditional-expression’ results true then the
‘statement-block 1’ of if part will be executed
 If the ‘conditional-expression’ results false then the
‘statement-block-2’ of else part will be executed
skipping the ‘statement-block1’ of if part.
Flowchart for if else statement
C program to demonstrate if…else statement
/* A program to understand if else STATEMENT */
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
int num;

printf("Enter the value for num : "); There is no conditional

scanf("%d",&num); expression required for else
statement
if(num%2==0)
{
printf(“Number %d is an even number",num);
}
else
{
printf(“Number %d is an odd number “,num );
}
}
Nested if … else statement
 The general form of Nested if….else statement is as following

if(conditional-expression1)
{
if (conditional-expression2)
{
statement-block-1 ;
}
else
{
statement-block-2 ;
}
}
else
{
statement-block-3 ;
}
statement-block-4;
Nested if … else statement cont…
 In case of above Nested if….else statement
 if ‘conditional-expression 1’ of outermost if statement
results false then control goes to statement-block3
with statement-block1 and 2 skipped out .
 If true the control goes to check ‘conditional-
expression2’ of inner if statement .
 If ‘conditional-expression2’ results true then ‘statement-
block1’ will be executed
 Else if false control will jump to ‘statement-block2’ will be
executed.
Flowchart for nested if else statement
C program to demonstrate nested if else statement
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{ Note the double
int num1,num2,num3; forward slashes used
printf("Enter three numbers: "); below
scanf("%d %d %d", &num1, &num2, &num3);
Comment lines to improve
if (num1>=num2) readibility of code
{
if(num1>=num3) //Nested if statement within if
printf("Largest number = %d",num1);
else
printf("Largest number = %d“,num3); //Nested else statement within if
}
else
{
if(num2>=num3) //Nested if statement within else
printf("Largest number = %d“,num2);
else //Nested else statement within else
printf("Largest number = %d“,num3);
}
}
C programs for nested if else statement
 Program to check if a given year is a leap year or not.
 Hint: a leap year is a year divisible by 4. Also if it is divisible by 400 but
not 100. E.g 1900 not a leap year but 2000 is a leap year.

 Program to check if a given character is a digit or an alphabet.

 If it is an alphabet check if it is vowel or not.
 If it is a digit check if it is odd or not.

 Program to check if a triangle is equilateral, isosceles or scalene

given the three sides. Also check if the triangle can be formed.
 Hint: A triangle cannot be formed if the greatest side is larger than
the sum of the other two sides.
Dangling else problem
 In Nested if .. else statements
 when a matching else is not available for an if.
 So in cases where it is not required to have a false condition, the
dangling else situation appears.
 The C compiler see’s that the else statement is always paired with
the most recent unpaired if.
 So in cases where we have two if statements and only one else
statement, the else will be paired with the second if statement.
 Solution is to use proper flower brackets { } to make the else join
with the proper if statement.
Consider the problem where we have to see if a number is divisible by both 2 and 3.
else associated with improper if else associated with proper if

int num; int num;

printf(“ enter the number”); printf(“ enter the number”);
scanf(“%d”,&num); scanf(“%d”,&num);

if( num%3==0 ) if( num%3==0 )

{
if ( num%2==0 ) if ( num%2==0 )
{ {
printf(“ divisible by both”); printf(“ divisible by both”);
} }
else }
{ else
printf(“ Not divisible by 3”); {
} printf(“ Not divisible by 3”);
}
else …if ladder statement
 The general form of else…..if ladder statement is as following: -
if(conditional-expression1)
{
statement-block-1 ;
}
else if(conditional-expression2) A conditional expression is
{ required for else if statement.
statement-block-2 ;
}
else if(conditional-expression3)
{
statement-block-3 ;
}
else there must be at least one
{ space between else and if
statement-block-4 ; keywords
}
else …if ladder statement cont …
 In case of else….If ladder
 The control checks the conditional-expressions from top
to bottom
 when a conditional expression results true then the
statement-block of that condition is executed and all the
remaining conditional statements will be skipped out .
 If all conditional-expression results false then the
‘statement-block4’ of else part is executed .
 This type of conditional statement is used where you
have to choose one option from multiple options .
Flowchart for else if ladder statement
C program to demonstrate else if ladder statement
#include<stdio.h>
main( )
{
int day;

printf(“ \n Enter day of week as numbers from 1 to 7");

scanf("%d",&day);
if(day==1)
printf("Day is Monday");
else if(day==2) There is no comma after
printf("Day is Tuesday"); the else if condition
else if(day==3)
printf("Day is Wednesday");
else if( day==4)
printf("Day is Thursday");
else if(day==5)
printf("Day is Friday");
else if(day==6) Note : else statement is not
printf("Day is Saturday"); mandatory in else if ladder
else program
printf("Day is Sunday");
}
C programs for else if ladder

Program to check in which quadrant a point lies given

it’s x and y axes coordinates.

Program to display BMI category given the height(in

meters) and weight( in kilograms) of a person.
 BMI = weight/(height*height)
Category BMI
Underweight < 18.5
Normal 18.5 - 24.9
Overweight 25 – 29.9
Obese > 30
switch statement
 The use of if statements becomes complex when the number of choices
increases and hence the code length.
 To overcome this issue, C has a switch statement which is a multi decision
making statement.

 The general form of switch statement is as following: -

switch(expression)
{
case value-1: block-1;
break;
case value-2: block-2;
break;
case value-3: block-3;
break;
default: block-4;
}
switch statement cont…..
 In switch statement the value of a given variable or
expression is compared against a list of case values.
 When a match is found , the block of statement inside that
particular case is executed.
 When a match is not found, the default case statement block
is executed.
 It is not mandatory to have a default case.
 We use a break statement at the end of each case block to
prevent execution of subsequent cases.

Also in switch statement, only expressions which result

in an integer or a character value can be used. Otherwise
any integer or character constant can be used.
Flowchart for switch statement
C program to demonstrate switch statement
#include<stdio.h>
main( )
{
int day;

printf(“\n Enter day of week as numbers from 1 to 7");

scanf("%d", &day);
case and break are keywords
switch(day)
{
which are lowercase.
case 1: printf("Day is Monday");
break;
default case is not mandatory
case 2: printf("Day is Tuesday"); break;
There is a whitespace between
case 3: printf("Day is Wednesday"); break;
case 4: printf("Day is Thursday"); break;
case and the switch value.
case 5: printf("Day is Friday"); break; Also a : between switch value
case 6: printf("Day is Saturday"); break; and case statements
case 7: printf("Day is Sunday"); break;
}
C programs for switch

Program to implement a simple calculator on two

integer values.
Program to display the number of days in a month
given the month and year.
Program to display the grade of a student on the input
of marks in 5 subjects. ( Max= 100 Min =0)
Total Grade
>=450 A
375 - 449 B
300 - 374 C
<=299 D
goto statement
 C supports the goto statement to branch unconditionally from
one point to another point In the program .
 goto requires a label in order to identify the place where the
branch is to be made.
goto label;
 A label is any valid variable name and must be followed by a
colon.
label :
 goto statements can be used in two ways depending upon
the positon of the label with respect to it:–
 Forward Jump.
 Backward Jump.
Types of goto statements
 Forward Jump.
goto label;
…………..
label:
statement ;
 Backward Jump Note: We can implement
looping style when goto is
label:
written in the backward jump
statement; fashion.
…………...
goto label;
Use of goto statement is highly discouraged in high
level programming language because it makes difficult
to trace the control flow of a program, making the
program hard to understand and hard to modify.
C program to demonstrate goto
#include<stdio.h>
start label implements backward jump.
main()
check label implements forward jump.
{
int num;

start:
printf(“ enter the number”);
scanf(“%d”, &num); Now if we enter a number 7 for e.g
if (num <=0) 7 % 3 == 1
goto start;
It will skip the goto check label and
if( num%3==0) execute the printf(“ Not divisible by 3”);
goto check;

printf(“ Not divisible by 3”); It will then execute the check label which
goto end; is not required.
check: if ( num%2==0 ) To skip this we have a new label end
{
printf(“ divisible by both 2 and 3”);
}
end: printf(“ Skipped check label”);
}
 Which are the unconditional branching statements in
C? Explain with an example.
Explain the different forms of “if” statement.
Why is switch called a multi-decision making
statement?
Mention the differences between Nested if-else and
switch statement.