The if
statement executes a
statement if a specified condition is truthy. If the condition is
falsy, another statement can be executed.
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Syntax
if (condition)
statement1
[else
statement2]
condition
- An expression that is considered to be either truthy or falsy.
statement1
- Statement that is executed if condition is truthy. Can be
any statement, including further nested
if
statements. To execute multiple statements, use a block statement ({ ... }
) to group those statements. To execute no statements, use an empty statement. statement2
- Statement that is executed if
condition
is falsy and theelse
clause exists. Can be any statement, including block statements and further nestedif
statements.
Description
Multiple if...else
statements can be nested to create an
else if
clause. Note that there is no elseif
(in one word)
keyword in JavaScript.
if (condition1)
statement1
else if (condition2)
statement2
else if (condition3)
statement3
...
else
statementN
To see how this works, this is how it would look if the nesting were properly indented:
if (condition1)
statement1
else
if (condition2)
statement2
else
if (condition3)
...
To execute multiple statements within a clause, use a block statement
({ ... }
) to group those statements. In general, it is a good practice to
always use block statements, especially in code involving nested if
statements:
if (condition) {
statements1
} else {
statements2
}
Do not confuse the primitive Boolean values true
and false
with truthiness or falsiness of the Boolean
object. Any value that is not false
, undefined
,
null
, 0
, -0
, NaN
, or the empty
string (""
), and any object, including a Boolean object whose value is
false
, is considered truthy when used as the condition. For
example:
var b = new Boolean(false);
if (b) // this condition is truthy
Examples
Using if...else
if (cipher_char === from_char) {
result = result + to_char;
x++;
} else {
result = result + clear_char;
}
Using else if
Note that there is no elseif
syntax in JavaScript. However, you can write
it with a space between else
and if
:
if (x > 50) {
/* do something */
} else if (x > 5) {
/* do something */
} else {
/* do something */
}
Assignment within the conditional expression
It is advisable to not use simple assignments in a conditional expression, because the assignment can be confused with equality when glancing over the code. For example, do not use the following code:
if (x = y) {
/* do something */
}
If you need to use an assignment in a conditional expression, a common practice is to put additional parentheses around the assignment. For example:
if ((x = y)) {
/* do something */
}
Specifications
Browser compatibility
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