else#

The if/elif/else statement allows make branches during program execution. The program goes into branch when a certain condition is met.

In this statement only if is mandatory, elif and else are optional:

if condition is always checked first.
After if statement there must be some condition: if this condition is met (returns True), then actions in block if are executed.
elif can be used to make multiple branches, that is, to check incoming data for different conditions.
elif block is the same as if but it checked next. Roughly speaking, it is “otherwise if …”
There can be many elif blocks.
else block is executed if none of conditions if or elif were true.

Example of if statement:

In [1]: a = 9

In [2]: if a == 10:
   ...:     print('a equal to 10')
   ...: elif a < 10:
   ...:     print('a less than 10')
   ...: else:
   ...:     print('a greater than 10')
   ...:
a less than 10

Condition#

If expression is based on conditions: conditions are always written after if and elif. Blocks if/elif are executed only when condition returns True, so the first thing to deal with is what is true and what is false in Python.

True and False#

In Python, apart from obvious True and False values, all other objects also have false or true value:

True value:
- any non-zero number
- any non-empty string
- any non-empty object
False value:
- 0
- None
- empty string
- empty object

For example, since an empty list is a false value, it is possible to check whether list is empty:

In [12]: list_to_test = [1, 2, 3]

In [13]: if list_to_test:
   ....:     print("The list has objects")
   ....:
List has objects

The same result could have been achieved somewhat differently:

In [14]: if len(list_to_test) != 0:
   ....:     print("The list has objects")
   ....:
List has objects

Comparison operators#

Comparison operators can be used in conditions like:

In [3]: 5 > 6
Out[3]: False

In [4]: 5 > 2
Out[4]: True

In [5]: 5 < 2
Out[5]: False

In [6]: 5 == 2
Out[6]: False

In [7]: 5 == 5
Out[7]: True

In [8]: 5 >= 5
Out[8]: True

In [9]: 5 <= 10
Out[9]: True

In [10]: 8 != 10
Out[10]: True

Note

Note that equality is checked by double ==.

Example of use of comparison operators:

In [1]: a = 9

In [2]: if a == 10:
   ...:     print('a equal to 10')
   ...: elif a < 10:
   ...:     print('a less than 10')
   ...: else:
   ...:     print('a greater than 10')
   ...:
a less than 10

Operator in#

Operator in allows checking for the presence of element in a sequence (for example, element in a list or substrings in a string):

In [8]: 'Fast' in 'FastEthernet'
Out[8]: True

In [9]: 'Gigabit' in 'FastEthernet'
Out[9]: False

In [10]: vlan = [10, 20, 30, 40]

In [11]: 10 in vlan
Out[11]: True

In [12]: 50 in vlan
Out[12]: False

When used with dictionaries, in condition performs check by dictionary keys:

In [15]: r1 = {
   ....:  'IOS': '15.4',
   ....:  'IP': '10.255.0.1',
   ....:  'hostname': 'london_r1',
   ....:  'location': '21 New Globe Walk',
   ....:  'model': '4451',
   ....:  'vendor': 'Cisco'}

In [16]: 'IOS' in r1
Out[16]: True

In [17]: '4451' in r1
Out[17]: False

Operators and, or, not#

Conditions can also use logical operators and, or, not:

In [15]: r1 = {
   ....:  'IOS': '15.4',
   ....:  'IP': '10.255.0.1',
   ....:  'hostname': 'london_r1',
   ....:  'location': '21 New Globe Walk',
   ....:  'model': '4451',
   ....:  'vendor': 'Cisco'}

In [18]: vlan = [10, 20, 30, 40]

In [19]: 'IOS' in r1 and 10 in vlan
Out[19]: True

In [20]: '4451' in r1 and 10 in vlan
Out[20]: False

In [21]: '4451' in r1 or 10 in vlan
Out[21]: True

In [22]: not '4451' in r1
Out[22]: True

In [23]: '4451' not in r1
Out[23]: True

Operator and#

In Python and operator returns not a boolean value but a value of one of operands.

If both operands are true, result is the last value:

In [24]: 'string1' and 'string2'
Out[24]: 'string2'

In [25]: 'string1' and 'string2' and 'string3'
Out[25]: 'string3'

If one of operators is a false, result of expression will be the first false value:

In [26]: '' and 'string1'
Out[26]: ''

In [27]: '' and [] and 'string1'
Out[27]: ''

Operator or#

Operator or, like operator and, returns one of operands value.

When checking operands, the first true operand is returned:

In [28]: '' or 'string1'
Out[28]: 'string1'

In [29]: '' or [] or 'string1'
Out[29]: 'string1'

In [30]: 'string1' or 'string2'
Out[30]: 'string1'

If all values are false, the last value is returned:

In [31]: '' or [] or {}
Out[31]: {}

An important feature of or operator - operands, which are after the true operand, are not calculated:

In [33]: '' or sorted([44, 1, 67])
Out[33]: [1, 44, 67]

In [34]: '' or 'string1' or sorted([44, 1, 67])
Out[34]: 'string1'

Example of if/elif/else statement#

An example of a check_password.py script that checks length of password and whether password contains username:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

username = input('Enter username: ')
password = input('Enter password: ')

if len(password) < 8:
    print('Password is too short')
elif username in password:
    print('Password contains username')
else:
    print('Password for user {} is set'.format(username))

Script check:

$ python check_password.py
Enter username: nata
Enter password: nata1234
Password contains username

$ python check_password.py
Enter username: nata
Enter password: 123nata123
Password contains username

$ python check_password.py
Enter username: nata
Enter password: 1234
Password is too short

$ python check_password.py
Enter username: nata
Enter password: 123456789
Password for user nata is set

Ternary expression#

It is sometimes more convenient to use a ternary operator than an extended form:

s = [1, 2, 3, 4]
result = True if len(s) > 5 else False

It is best not to abuse it but in simple terms such a record can be useful.