What are conditionals? When they are required in a program?

What are conditionals? When they are required in a program?

Conditionals are statements in a program that help make decisions based on certain conditions. They can be used to control the flow of execution by evaluating expressions and executing different blocks of code depending on whether the specified condition is true or false.

When are conditionals required in a program?

Conditionals are required:

1. When making decisions in code:

   • They allow the program to execute certain actions only if a specific condition is met.

   • Example: Determining if a user is eligible to vote based on their age.

2. To handle different scenarios and outcomes:

   • They help in handling multiple possible scenarios by specifying different actions for different conditions.

   • Example: Checking if a number is even or odd and performing different actions accordingly.

3. For branching and looping logic:

   • Conditionals are used in loops to keep iterating until a certain condition is satisfied.

   • Example: Running a loop to collect user inputs until a valid input is provided.

By using conditionals, programmers can write code that is flexible and can respond to various inputs and situations dynamically.

Example of conditionals in pseudocode:

IF age >= 18 THEN
    PRINT "Eligible to vote"
ELSE
    PRINT "Not eligible to vote"

In the code above, the execution depends on the condition age >= 18. If it is true, the program prints "Eligible to vote"; otherwise, it prints "Not eligible to vote".