If - Else

Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's C++ journey — lesson 28 of 74.

if allows us to execute particular code if a condition is met, but what if we want to execute something else if the condition is not met?

For that we have the else statement:

int age = 15;
std::string status = "None";
if (age >= 18) {
    status = "Adult";
} else {
    status = "Young";
}

In the above example, age is smaller than 18 which means it enters the else code and status will hold "Young".

We can even make it more profound using the else if statement:

int age = 68;
std::string status = "None";
if (age < 18) {
    status = "Young";
} else if (age >= 18 && age <= 65) {
    status = "Adult";
} else {
    status = "Old";
}

Here it checks whether age is smaller than 18, if not it will continue to the next condition and check whether age is between 18 and 65. If that condition is also not met it will set status to "Old".

We can add as many else if statements as we want:

if (condition1) {
    code;
} else if (condition2) {
    code;
} else if (condition3) {
    code;
}
...

Challenge

Beginner

You are given a code which gets as input a number that indicates the wind speed and stores it in a variable named wind.

Note: we will learn in next lessons how to get input from the user, currently just don't touch the first line.

Your task is to initialize variable status based on the conditions:

"Calm" if wind is smaller than 8,
"Breeze" if wind is between 8 and 31 (including 8 and 31).
"Gale" if wind is between 32 and 63 (including 32 and 63)
"Storm" otherwise

Check the test cases to see all the inputs and the expected outputs

Cheat sheet

Use else to execute code when the if condition is not met:

if (age >= 18) {
    status = "Adult";
} else {
    status = "Young";
}

Use else if to check multiple conditions:

if (age < 18) {
    status = "Young";
} else if (age >= 18 && age <= 65) {
    status = "Adult";
} else {
    status = "Old";
}

You can chain multiple else if statements:

if (condition1) {
    code;
} else if (condition2) {
    code;
} else if (condition3) {
    code;
}

Try it yourself

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    int wind;
    std::cin >> wind; // Don't change this line
    std::string status = "unset";
    // Type your code below
    
    
    // Don\'t change the line below
    std::cout << "status = " << status;
    return 0; 
}

Test yourself

This lesson includes a short quiz. Start the lesson to answer it and track your progress.

If - Else

Cheat sheet

All lessons in Fundamentals