Lecture 6

Decision Making and Branching

 Objectives
• Explain simple if statement
• Explain if …else statement with flowcharts
• Discuss nested if …else statement with
flowcharts
• Clarify else…if ladder with example
• Explain the switch statement with example
• Compare conditional operator with if
statement

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 Decision Making and Branching
• Sequential statements

• Branching

• Decision-making statements:
– if statement
– switch statement
– Conditional operator statement (?)

• Looping / Repetition 3
 Decision Making with if Statement
• The if statement is a powerful decision making
statement.
• It is basically a two-way decision statement
• It takes the following form:
if (test expression)

• It evaluates the expression first and then,

depending on the result of the expression, it
transfers the control to a particular statement(s).

• This point of program has two paths to follow,

one for the true condition and the other for the
false condition.
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 Different Forms of if Statements
• The if statement may be implemented in
different forms depending on the complexity
of the conditions to be tested.

• Simple if statement
• if...else statement
• Nested if...else statement
• else if ladder

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 Simple if Statement
• The general form of a simple if statement is:

if (test expression)
{
statement-block;
}
statement-x;

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Simple if Statement

Test True
Expression

Statements

False

Statement-x

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 Simple if Statement
• The statement-block may be a single statement or a
group of statements.

• If the test expression is true, the statement-block will

be executed

• If the test expression is false the statement-x will be

executed.

• When the condition is true both the statement-block

and the statement-x are executed in sequence.

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 Example with Simple if Statement
• A program to check whether the value of a is greater
than b.
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int a = 150;
int b = 100;
if(a>b)
{
cout<<"Value of A is greater than B";
}
cout<<"\nThis is the end of the program";
}
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 The if…else Statement
• The if...else statement is an extension of the simple if
statement.
• The general form is:
if (test expression)
{
True-block statement(s);
}
else
{
False-block statement(s);
}
statement-x;
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 The if…else Statement

Test True
False
Expression

Statements Statements

Statement-x

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 The if…else Statement
• If the test expression is true, then the true-
block of statement(s), immediately following
the if statements are executed; otherwise the
false-block of statement(s) are executed.

• In either case, either true-block or false-block

will be executed, but not both.

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 Example: if-else Statement
• A program to find the greater number from two
numbers
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int a, b;
cout<<"Enter a value for A ";
cin>>a;
cout<<"Enter a value for B ";
cin>>b;
if(a>b)
cout<<"Value of A is greater than B";
else
cout<<"Value of B is greater than A";
} 13
 Nesting of if…else Statements
if (test condition1)
{
if (test condition 2)
{
statement-1;
}
else
{
statement-2;
}
}
else
{
if(condition 3)
{
statement-3;
}
else
{
statement-4
}
}
statement-x;

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 Nesting of if…else Statements
• If the condition-1 is true, it will check the condition-2
and if this condition is also true, it will execute the
statement1.
• If the condition-2 is false, statement 2 will be
executed.
• If condition-1 is false it will check the condition-3
and if the result of the condition is true, statement 3
will be executed, otherwise statement 4 will be
executed.
• statement-x will be executed after executing any
statement of the if structure. .
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 Nesting of if…else Statements

False Test True

condition 1

False Test True False Test True

condition 3 condition 2

Statement 4 Statement 3 Statement 2 Statement 1

Statement-x

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 Example: Nested if Statements
int main()
{
int a, b, c;
cout<<"Enter the values of a, b and c ";
cin>>a>>b>>c;
if(a>b)
{
if(a>c)
{
cout<<"Value of A is greater than B or C";
}
else
{
cout<<"Value of C is greater than A or B";
}
}
else
{
if(b>c)
{
cout<<"Value of B is greater than A or C";
}
else
{
cout<<"Value of C is greater than A or B";
}
}
}
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 The else if Ladder
• The general format:
if (condition 1)
{
statement 1 ;
}
else if (condition 2)
{
statement 2;
}
else if (condition n)
{
statement n;
}
else
{
default statement;
}
statement x;

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 The else if Ladder
• This if structure is known as the else if ladder.
• The conditions are evaluated from the top to
downwards.

• As soon as a true condition is found, the statement

associated with it is executed and the control is
transferred to the statement-x, skipping the rest of the
statements.

• When all the conditions become false, then the final

else containing the default statement will be executed.
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 The else if Ladder

True False
CD-1

Statement 1
True False
CD-2

Statement 2
True False
CD-n

Statement-n Default Statement

Statement -x
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 An Example of else if ladder
int main(){ else if(marks>64)
float marks; {
cout<<"Enter the marks"; cout<<"Credit";
cin>>marks; }
if(marks>84) else if(marks>49)
{ {
cout<<“HD"; cout<<"Pass";
} }
else if(marks>74) else
{ {
cout<<"Distinction"; cout<<"Fail";
} }

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 The Switch Statement
• Multiple conditions with if statement will increase the
complexity of the program

• If there are multiple tests to be conducted, use switch

statement
• This will increase the clarity of the program

• The switch statement tests the value of a given

variable (or expression) against a list of case values

• If a match is found, it will execute that block of

statements.
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 The Switch Statement
switch (expression)
{
case value1:
block1
break;
case value2:
block2
break;
case value-n:
block-n
break;
default:
default-block
break;
}
statement-x;
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 The Switch Statement
Expression

Expression = value 1
Block-1

Expression = value 2 Block-2

Expression = value-n
Block-n

Expression = default value

Default block

Statement-x
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 The Switch Statement
• The expression used in the switch statement should
result an integer value.

• value1, value2, .... are constants or constant

expressions and are known as case labels.

• Each of these values should be unique within a switch

statement. block1, block2,.. are statement lists and
may contain zero or more statements.

• There is no need to put braces around these blocks.

Note that case labels end with a colon.

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 The Switch Statement
• On execution of the keyword switch, the value of the
expression is successively compared against the
values value1, value2, value-n.
• If the value of the expression for a particular case
matches with a case value, then the block of
statements that follow the case are executed.
• The break statement at the end of each block signal
the end of a particular case and causes an exit from
the switch statement.
• The default is an optional case. When present, it will
be executed if the expression does not match any of
the case values.
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 The Switch Statement
• If default statement is not present no action takes
place if all matches fails and the control goes to the
statement-x.
• The break statement causes an immediate exit from
the switch statement.
• As the default case is placed at the end of the case
statement it is not necessary to include a break
statement there.
• It is advisable to use the break statement in the
default block.

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 An Example of Switch Statement
int main() case 5:
{ cout<<"Wednesday";
int day; break;
cout<<"Enter a number case 6:
between 1 to 7 - "; cout<<"Thursday";
cin>>day; break;
switch(day) case 7:
{ cout<<"Friday";
case 1: break;
cout<<"Saturday"; default:
break; cout<<"Please enter
case 2: proper value";
cout<<"Sunday"; break;
break; }
case 3: }
cout<<"Monday";
break;
case 4:
cout<<"Tuesday";
break;

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 Conditional Operator and if: Example
#include<iostream> #include<iostream>
using namespace std;
using namespace std; int main()
int main() {
{ int n = 48, m = 65;
int x;
int n = 48, m = 65; if(n<m)
int x; x = n + 2;
x = (n<m)? n + 2 : m * 4; else
x = m * 4;
cout<<"Value of x = "<<x; cout<<"Value of x = "<<x;
} }

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 Output?
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){
int a=100;
if(a>10)
cout<<‘A’;
else if(a>20)
cout<<‘B’;
else if(a>30)
cout<<‘C’;
} A
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 Output?
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){
int x=-1,y=-1;
if(++x=++y)
cout<<‘A’;
else
cout<<‘B’;
} B

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 Output?
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){

int a=5,b=10;
if(++a||++b)

cout<<a<<endl<<b;
else
cout<<'WRONG';
}6, 10
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 Output?
int main()
{
int x;
cout<<"Enter a value ";
cin>>x;
switch(x)
{
case 1:
cout<<“ONE";
case 2:
cout<<“TWO";
case 3:
cout<<“THREE";
default:
cout<<“WRONG";
break;
}
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THANK YOU

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