If our programs only ever did the same exact thing, we would only need to run them once. But, in the real world, this approach is not practical.
That's because more often than not, our applications must make decisions and take different actions based on some user inputs or calculations.
There are multiple reasons as to why your code needs to be more intelligent than merely executing sequentially from the beginning to the end.
And when I say sequentially, that's not just a throwaway statement. It's essential to remember that code is generally read and executed line by line.
That's all well and good, but what happens when your program needs to branch out and make decisions?
If everything is processed in a linear fashion, accommodating various scenarios becomes challenging. This need for decision-making in programs is where conditional execution comes into play.
Conditional executions let's us create separate paths of execution flow. In other words, we can specify under what conditions certain parts of our code should run.
For example, consider the question, "Is it raining?" Depending on your answer, a program might execute different sets of instructions. If it's true, you might choose to perform one action; if false, another.
This binary decision-making forms the crux of conditional logic in programming, allowing us to handle complex scenarios by stacking conditions and creating sophisticated control flows.
Understanding and implementing conditional statements empower us to make our programs dynamic and responsive to a variety of scenarios. This ability to direct the program flow based on conditions is a cornerstone of effective programming, regardless of the language used.
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