Imagine you’re walking through a forest. At a fork in the road, you must choose: left or right. You don’t just pick randomly—you check your map. If the map says the treasure is left, you go left. That’s exactly how control statements work in Python: they help your code decide what to do next.

Let’s dive into how we use booleans and if statements to make our programs smart.

✅ Booleans Help Us Decide

In Python, a boolean is either True or False. These values are super useful because we can use them in conditions to decide what parts of code to run.

Here’s a basic example:

condition = True
if condition == True:
    print("The condition")
    print("was true")

If condition is True, Python runs the indented code block. This block of code (with the 4 spaces in front) is what we call a code block. Once the indentation ends, Python knows the block is done.

condition = True
if condition == True:
    print("The condition")
    print("was true")
print("Outside of the if")

Only the first two lines are part of the if. The last line runs no matter what.

❗️ Using else for the Other Road

What if the condition is not true? That’s where else comes in.

condition = False
if condition == True:
    print("The condition")
    print("was True")
else:
    print("The condition")
    print("was False")

Now if the condition is False, the else block runs instead.

🔁 Handling Multiple Options with elif

What if you have more than two roads to choose from?

Python gives us elif, which stands for “else if”. You can chain many elif conditions between your if and else.

condition = False
name = "Roger"

if condition == True:
    print("The condition")
    print("was True")
elif name == "Roger":
    print("Hello Roger")
elif name == "Syd":
    print("Hello Syd")
elif name == "Flavio":
    print("Hello Flavio")
else:
    print("The condition")
    print("was False")

In this example:

  • Python checks condition == True. If it’s false, it checks name == "Roger".
  • It continues down the line until it finds a match.
  • If nothing matches, it runs the else block.

🏃 One-Line Decisions (Ternary Operator)

Sometimes, you want to choose between two values quickly. Python has a neat inline way to do that:

a = 2
result = 2 if a == 0 else 3
print(result)  # 3

This means: If a equals 0, result will be 2, otherwise, it’ll be 3.

📝 Practice Time!

Try these exercises:

  1. Write a program that checks if a number is positive, negative, or zero.
  2. Ask a user for their age. If they’re below 18, print “Minor”, else print “Adult”.
  3. Write an if...elif...else block that greets someone by name if their name is Alice, Bob, or Charlie, and says “Who are you?” otherwise.
  4. Use a one-line if...else to assign "even" or "odd" based on a number.
  5. Write a program that checks if a password is correct. If yes, print “Access granted”, else print “Access denied”.

🚀 Final Tip:

Control statements make your programs interactive and smart. They’re the brain behind every decision in your code.

Keep practicing—your Python will thank you later. 🐍💻

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