Conditional Statements

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Statements in a C program
 Parts of C program that tell the computer what to do
 Different types
 Declaration statements
 Declares variables etc.

 Assignment statement
 Assignment expression, followed by a ;

 Control statements
 For branching and looping, like if-else, for, while, do-
while (to be seen later)
 Input/Output
 Read/print, like printf/scanf

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Example
Declaration statement

int a, b, larger;
scanf(“%d %d”, &a, &b);
larger = b;
Control Assignment
if (a > b) statement statement
larger = a; Input/Output
statement
printf(“Larger number is %d\n”, larger);

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 Compound statements
 A sequence of statements enclosed within { and }
 We will also call it block of statements informally
 Each statement in a block can be an assignment
statement, control statement, input/output statement,
or another compound statement
 There may be only one statement inside a block also

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Example
int n;
scanf(“%d”, &n);
while(1) {
if (n > 0) break;
Compound statement
scanf(“%d”, &n);
}

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Conditional Statements
 Allow different sets of instructions to be executed
depending on truth or falsity of a logical condition
 Also called Branching
 How do we specify conditions?
 Using expressions
 non-zero value means condition is true
 value 0 means condition is false
 Usually logical expressions, but can be any
expression
 The value of the expression will be used

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Branching: if Statement
if (expression)
statement;

if (expression) {
Block of statements;
}

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Branching: if Statement
if (expression)
statement;

if (expression) {
Block of statements;
}

The condition to be tested is any expression enclosed in

parentheses. The expression is evaluated, and if its value is
non-zero, the statement/block of statements is executed.
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 print “Passed”
true print “Good luck”
marks >= 40

false

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 A decision can be
made on any
print “Passed” expression.
true print “Good luck”
marks >= 40 zero - false
nonzero - true
false

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 A decision can be
made on any
print “Passed” expression.
true print “Good luck”
marks >= 40 zero - false
nonzero - true
false

if (marks >= 40) {

printf(“Passed \n”);
printf(“Good luck\n”);
}
printf (“End\n”) ;

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Branching: if-else Statement

if (expression) { if (expression) {
Block of Block of statements;
statements; }
} else if (expression) {
else { Block of statements;
Block of }
statements; else {
} Block of statements;
}
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Grade Computation
int main() {
int marks;
scanf(“%d”, &marks);
if (marks >= 80)
printf (”A”) ;
else if (marks >= 70)
printf (”B”) ;
else if (marks >= 60)
printf (”C”) ;
else printf (”Failed”);
return 0;
} 13
 Outputs for different inputs
int main () { 90
int marks; A: Good Job!
scanf (“%d”, &marks) ;
if (marks>= 80) { 65
C
printf (“A: ”) ;
printf (“Good Job!”) ;
50
} Failed: Study hard!
else if (marks >= 70) printf (“B ”) ;
else if (marks >= 60) printf (“C ”) ;
else {
printf (“Failed: ”) ;
printf (“Study hard!”) ;
}
return 0;
} 14
 Find the larger of two numbers
START

READ X, Y

YES IS NO
X>Y?

OUTPUT X OUTPUT Y

STOP STOP

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 Find the larger of two numbers
START int main () {
int x, y;
scanf (“%d%d”, &x, &y);
READ X, Y
if (x > y)
printf (“%d\n”, x);
YES IS NO else
X>Y?
printf (“%d\n”, y);
return 0;
OUTPUT X OUTPUT Y }

STOP STOP

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Largest of three numbers
START

READ X, Y, Z

YES IS NO
X > Y?

Max = X Max = Y

YES IS NO
Max > Z?
OUTPUT Max OUTPUT Z

STOP STOP

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 START

READ X, Y, Z

YES IS NO
X > Y?

Max = X Max = Y

YES IS NO
Max > Z?
OUTPUT Max OUTPUT Z

STOP STOP

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 int main () {
START
int x, y, z, max;
scanf (“%d%d%d”,&x,&y,&z);
READ X, Y, Z
if (x > y)
YES IS NO
max = x;
X > Y? else max = y;
Max = X Max = Y if (max > z)
printf (“%d”, max) ;
YES IS NO else printf (“%d”,z);
Max > Z? return 0;
OUTPUT Max OUTPUT Z
}
STOP STOP

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 Another version
int main() {
int a,b,c;
scanf (“%d%d%d”, &a, &b, &c);
if ((a >= b) && (a >= c))
printf (“\n The largest number is: %d”, a);
if ((b >= a) && (b >= c))
printf (“\n The largest number is: %d”, b);
if ((c >= a) && (c >= b))
printf (“\n The largest number is: %d”, c);
return 0;
}

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Confusing Equality (==) and
Assignment (=) Operators
 Dangerous error
 Does not ordinarily cause syntax errors
 Any expression that produces a value can be used in
control structures
 Nonzero values are true, zero values are false
 Example:
if ( payCode = 4 )
printf( "You get a bonus!\n" );
WRONG! Will always print the line

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Nesting of if-else Structures
 It is possible to nest if-else statements, one within
another
 All “if” statements may not be having the “else” part
 Confusion??

 Rule to be remembered
 An “else” clause is associated with the closest
preceding unmatched “if”

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Dangling else problem
if (exp1) if (exp2) stmta else stmtb

if (exp1) { if (exp1) {
if (exp2) if (exp2)

else
stmta OR
}
stmta ?
stmtb else
} stmtb

Which one is the correct interpretation?

Give braces explicitly in your programs to match
the else with the correct if to remove any ambiguity
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More Examples
if e1 s1
else if e2 s2

if e1 s1
else if e2 s2
else s3
?
if e1 if e2 s1
else s2
else s3
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Answers
if e1 s1 if e1 s1
else if e2 s2 else { if e2 s2 }

if e1 s1 if e1 s1
else if e2 s2 else { if e2 s2
else s3 else s3 }

if e1 if e2 s1 if e1 { if e2 s1
else s2 else s2 }
else s3 else s3

While programming, it is always good to explicitly give

the { and } to avoid any mistakes 25
Example Print “ABC” if a number is
between 0 and 100, or “XYZ”
if it is –ve. Do not print
int main() anything in other cases.
{
int x;
scanf(“%d”, &x);
if (x >= 0)
if (x <= 100)
printf(“ABC\n”);
else
printf(“XYZ\n”);
return 0;
}
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Example Print “ABC” if a number is
between 0 and 100, or “XYZ”
if it is –ve. Do not print
int main() anything in other cases.
{
int x; Outputs for different inputs
scanf(“%d”, &x); 150
if (x >= 0) XYZ
if (x <= 100) Not what we want, should
printf(“ABC\n”); not have printed anything
else
-20
printf(“XYZ\n”);
return 0; Not what we want, should
} have printed XYZ
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 Correct Program
int main()
{
Outputs for different inputs
int x;
scanf(“%d”, &x); 150
if (x >= 0)
{
if (x <= 100) -20
printf(“ABC\n”); XYZ
}
else
printf(“XYZ\n”);
return 0;
}
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The Conditional Operator ?:
 This makes use of an expression that is either non-0 or
0. An appropriate value is selected, depending on the
value of the expression
 Example: instead of writing
if (balance > 5000)
interest = balance * 0.2;
else interest = balance * 0.1;
We can just write
interest = (balance > 5000) ? balance * 0.2 : balance * 0.1;

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 More Examples
 if (((a >10) && (b < 5))
x = a + b;
else x = 0;

x = ((a > 10) && (b < 5)) ? a + b : 0

 if (marks >= 60)

printf(“Passed \n”);
else printf(“Failed \n”);

(marks >= 60) ? printf(“Passed \n”) : printf(“Failed \n”);

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The switch Statement

 An alternative to writing lots of if-else in some

special cases
 This causes a particular group of statements to
be chosen from several available groups based
on equality tests only
 Uses switch statement and case labels

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 Syntax
switch (expression) {
case const-expr-1: S-1
case const-expr-2: S-2
:
case const-expr-m: S-m
default: S
}
 expression is any integer-valued expression
 const-expr-1, const-expr-2,…are any constant integer-
valued expressions
 Values must be distinct
 S-1, S-2, …,S-m, S are statements/compound
statements
 Default is optional, and can come anywhere (not
necessarily at the end as shown) 32
Behavior of switch
 expression is first evaluated
 It is then compared with const-expr-1, const-expr-
2,…for equality in order
 If it matches any one, all statements from that point till
the end of the switch are executed (including
statements for default, if present)
 Use break statements if you do not want this (see
example)
 Statements corresponding to default, if present, are
executed if no other expression matches

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int main() Example
{
int x;
scanf(“%d”, &x);
switch (x) {
case 1: printf(“One\n”);
case 2: printf(“Two\n”);
default: printf(“Not one or two\n”);
};
}
If x = 1 is entered, this will print

One
Two
Not one or two
switch-1.c
Not what we want 34
 Correct Program
int main()
{
int x;
scanf(“%d”, &x);
switch (x) {
case 1: printf(“One\n”);
break;
case 2: printf(“Two\n”);
break;
default: printf(“Not one or two\n”);
};
} If x = 1 is entered, this will print

One
switch-2.c 35
Rounding a Digit
Since there isn’t a break statement
switch (digit) { here, the control passes to the next
statement without checking
case 0: the next condition.
case 1:
case 2: It will come here if digit is any of 0 to 4.
Round to 0, then break as done.
case 3:
case 4: result = 0; printf (“Round down\n”); break;
case 5:
case 6:
case 7:
case 8:
case 9: result = 10; printf(“Round up\n”); break;
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}
The break Statement

 Used to exit from a switch or terminate from a loop

 With respect to “switch”, the “break” statement
causes a transfer of control out of the entire
“switch” statement, to the first statement following
the “switch” statement
 Can be used with other statements also …(will
show later)

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More on Data Types

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More Data Types in C
 Some of the basic data types can be augmented by
using certain data type qualifiers:
 short
size qualifier
 long
 signed
 unsigned sign qualifier
 Typical examples:
 short int (usually 2 bytes)
 long int (usually 4 bytes)
 unsigned int (usually 4 bytes, but no way to store + or
-)

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 Some typical sizes (some of these can vary
depending on type of machine)
Integer data
#Bits Minimum value Maximum value
type
char 8 -27 = -128 27-1 = 127
short int 16 -215 = -32768 215-1 = 32767
int 32 -231 = -2147483648 231-1 = 2147483647
long int 32 -231 = -2147483648 231-1 = 2147483647
-263= - 263-1 =
long long int 64
9223372036854775808 9223372036854775807
unsigned char 8 0 28-1 = 255
unsigned short int 16 0 216-1 = 65535
unsigned int 32 0 232-1 = 4294967295
unsigned long int 32 0 232-1 = 4294967295
264-1 =
unsigned long long int 64 0
18446744073709551615
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More on the char type
 Is actually stored as an integer internally
 Each character has an integer code associated with it
(ASCII code value)
 Internally, storing a character means storing its
integer code
 All operators that are allowed on int are allowed on
char
 32 + ‘a’ will evaluate to 32 + 97 (the integer ascii code
of the character ‘a’) = 129
 Same for other operators
 Can switch on chars constants in switch, as they are
integer constants 41
Another example

int a;
Will print 302 (99*3 + 5)
a = ‘c’ * 3 + 5;
(ASCII code of ‘c’ = 99
printf(“%d”, a);

char c = ‘A’; Will print A = 65

printf(“%c = %d”, c, c); (ASCII code of ‘A’ = 65)

Assigning char to int is fine. But other way round is

dangerous, as size of int is larger
42
ASCII Code
 Each character is assigned a unique integer value (code)
between 32 and 127
 The code of a character is represented by an 8-bit unit.
Since an 8-bit unit can hold a total of 28=256 values and
the computer character set is much smaller than that,
some values of this 8-bit unit do not correspond to visible
characters
 But never try to remember exact ASCII codes while
programming. Use the facts that
 C stores characters as integers
 Ascii codes of some important characters are contiguous
(digits, lowercase alphabets, uppercase alphabets)
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Decimal Hex Binary Character Decimal Hex Binary Character

32 20 00100000 SPACE 80 50 01010000 P

33 21 00100001 ! 81 51 01010001 Q

34 22 00100010 " 82 52 01010010 R

35 23 00100011 # 83 53 01010011 S

36 24 00100100 $ 84 54 01010100 T

37 25 00100101 % 85 55 01010101 U

38 26 00100110 & 86 56 01010110 V

39 27 00100111 ' 87 57 01010111 W

40 28 00101000 ( 88 58 01011000 X

41 29 00101001 ) 89 59 01011001 Y

42 2a 00101010 * 90 5a 01011010 Z

43 2b 00101011 + 91 5b 01011011 [

44 2c 00101100 , 92 5c 01011100 \

45 2d 00101101 - 93 5d 01011101 ]

46 2e 00101110 . 94 5e 01011110 ^

47 2f 00101111 / 95 5f 01011111 _

48 30 00110000 0 96 60 01100000 `

49 31 00110001 1 97 61 01100001 a

50 32 00110010 2 98 62 01100010 b

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51 33 00110011 3 99 63 01100011 c

52 34 00110100 4 100 64 01100100 d

53 35 00110101 5 101 65 01100101 e

54 36 00110110 6 102 66 01100110 f

55 37 00110111 7 103 67 01100111 g

56 38 00111000 8 104 68 01101000 h

57 39 00111001 9 105 69 01101001 i

58 3a 00111010 : 106 6a 01101010 j

59 3b 00111011 ; 107 6b 01101011 k

60 3c 00111100 < 108 6c 01101100 l

61 3d 00111101 = 109 6d 01101101 m

62 3e 00111110 > 110 6e 01101110 n

63 3f 00111111 ? 111 6f 01101111 o

64 40 01000000 @ 112 70 01110000 p

65 41 01000001 A 113 71 01110001 q

66 42 01000010 B 114 72 01110010 r

67 43 01000011 C 115 73 01110011 s

68 44 01000100 D 116 74 01110100 t

69 45 01000101 E 117 75 01110101 u

70 46 01000110 F 118 76 01110110 v

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71 47 01000111 G 119 77 01110111 w
72 48 01001000 H 120 78 01111000 x
73 49 01001001 I 121 79 01111001 y
74 4a 01001010 J 122 7a 01111010 z
75 4b 01001011 K 123 7b 01111011 {
76 4c 01001100 L 124 7c 01111100 |
77 4d 01001101 M 125 7d 01111101 }
78 4e 01001110 N 126 7e 01111110 ~
79 4f 01001111 O 127 7f 01111111 DELETE

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Example: checking if a character is a
lowercase alphabet
int main()
{
char c1;
scanf(“%c”, &c1);
/* the ascii code of c1 must lie between the
ascii codes of ‘a’ and ‘z’ */
if (c1 >= ‘a’ && c1<= ‘z’)
printf(“%c is a lowercase alphabet\n”, c1);
else printf(“%c is not a lowercase alphabet\n”, c1);
return 0;
}
47
Example: converting a character from
lowercase to uppercase
int main()
{
char c1;
scanf(“%c”, &c1);
/* convert to uppercase if lowercase, else leave as it is */
if (c1 >= ‘a’ && c1<= ‘z’)
/* since ascii codes of uppercase letters are contiguous, the
uppercase version of c1 will be as far away from the ascii code
of ‘A’ as it is from the ascii code of ‘a’ */
c1 = ‘A’ + (c1 – ‘a’);
printf((“The letter is %c\n”, c1);
return 0;
}
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Switching with char type
char letter;
scanf(“%c”, &letter);
switch ( letter ) {
case 'A':
printf ("First letter \n");
break;
case 'Z':
printf ("Last letter \n");
break;
default :
printf ("Middle letter \n");
} 49
Switching with char type
char letter;
scanf(“%c”, &letter);
switch ( letter ) {
case 'A':
printf ("First letter \n");
break;
case 'Z':
printf ("Last letter \n");
break;
default : Will print this statement
printf ("Middle letter \n"); for all letters other than
A or Z
} 50
Another Example
switch (choice = getchar()) {
case ‘r’ :
case ‘R’: printf(“Red”);
break;
case ‘b’ :
case ‘B’ : printf(“Blue”);
break;
case ‘g’ :
case ‘G’: printf(“Green”);
break;
default: printf(“Black”);
}
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Another Example
switch (choice = getchar()) {
case ‘r’ : Since there isn’t a break statement
here, the control passes to the next
case ‘R’: printf(“Red”); statement (printf) without checking
break; the next condition.
case ‘b’ :
case ‘B’ : printf(“Blue”);
break;
case ‘g’ :
case ‘G’: printf(“Green”);
break;
default: printf(“Black”);
}
52
 Evaluating expressions case ‘-’ :
result=operand1-operand2;
int main () { break;
int operand1, operand2; case ‘*’ :
int result = 0; result=operand1*operand2;
break;
char operation ;
case ‘/’ :
/* Get the input values */
if (operand2 !=0)
printf (“Enter operand1 :”);
result=operand1/operand2;
scanf(“%d”,&operand1) ; else
printf (“Enter operation :”); printf(“Divide by 0 error”);
scanf (“\n%c”,&operation); break;
printf (“Enter operand 2 :”); default:
scanf (“%d”, &operand2); printf(“Invalid operation\n”);
switch (operation) { return;
case ‘+’ : }
result=operand1+operand2; printf (“The answer is %d\n”,result);
return 0;
break;
} 53
Practice Problems
1. Read in 3 integers and print a message if any one of them is equal to the sum of the
other two.
2. Read in the coordinates of two points and print the equation of the line joining them in
y = mx +c form.
3. Read in the coordinates of 3 points in 2-d plane and check if they are collinear. Print
a suitable message.
4. Read in the coordinates of a point, and the center and radius of a circle. Check and
print if the point is inside or outside the circle.
5. Read in the coefficients a, b, c of the quadratic equation ax2 + bx + c = 0, and print its
roots nicely (for imaginary roots, print in x + iy form)
6. Suppose the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are mapped to the lowercase letters a, b,
c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j respectively. Read in a single digit integer as a character (using %c
in scanf) and print its corresponding lowercase letter. Do this both using switch and
without using switch (two programs). Do not use any ascii code value directly.
7. Suppose that you have to print the grades of a student, with >= 90 marks getting EX,
80-89 getting A, 70-79 getting B, 60-69 getting C, 50-59 getting D, 35-49 getting P
and <30 getting F. Read in the marks of a student and print his/her grade.

54