If and else in Ruby

From here your real programming learning will start. In this chapter, you will learn about decision making. This means that if a user gives you some input, then you will learn to judge that input and then perform according to it.

In real life, we also make conditional decisions e.g.- If it is raining, then you will take umbrella, else not; if it is your birthday, then it is a special day, else a normal day; if you want to allow some features of a website to its users having an account, then you can think of - if the user has account then this, else not.

Now, let's implement this in Ruby.

a = gets.chomp.to_i
if a > 10
  puts "Your number is greater than 10"
else
  puts "Your number is not greater than 10"
end

In the first line, we are taking input.
if a>10 - Here we used 'if'.
First see a>10 - The condition a>10 is comparing a with 10 and if a is greater than 10, then it is true and if smaller then false.
So, the whole story is that if a>10 ( if a is greater than 10 ), then it will execute puts "your number is greater than 10", otherwise it will execute puts "your number not greater than 10"
end at the last of the code indicates the end of 'if' and 'else'. You can also say that it indicates the body of 'if' and 'else'. It will be clearer from examples. So, let's proceed for now.

See the flow diagram below.

if condition
  statement
  statement
  ...
else
  statement
  statement
  ...
end

We first write if condition ( condition -> What has to be judged. In the first example, the condition was 'a>10' ). Statements under if will be executed only when this condition is true otherwise the statements under else will be executed. end at the last indicates the termination of 'if' and 'else'.

Arithmetic operator

Commonly used arithmetic operators are:
+     -     addition
-     -     subtraction
*     -     multiplication
/     -     division
%     -     modulus
**     -     exponentiation

Addition, multiplication and subtraction are simple mathematical operators with no change. Let's see an example.

a = 20
b = 10
puts a+b
puts a-b
puts a*b

division operator (/)

First see an example.

puts 5/2
puts 5.0/2
puts 5.0/2.0
puts 5/2.0

5/2 gave us 2 and not 2.5. And this is the thing that I was trying to show you. If both operands of / are integers, then it will also give an integer rounded to the nearest lower integer. So, 1/2 will give 0 ( as the nearest lower integer near to 0.5 is 0 ). To get float, at least anyone of the two operands must be a float.

% operator gives us remainder after division of two numbers
** operation is the exponential operator. It will calculate the power of the first operand raised to the second. Ex - 4**2 means 4²

Let's see an example of these operators

a = 5
b = 2
puts a%b
puts a**2

As we have seen, % calculated the remainder and ** calculated 5².

Priority order

In Maths, you might have learned about BODMAS rule, but that rule is not applied here. If we have written more than one operation in one line, then which operation should be done first is governed by PEMDAS.

PEMDAS means :
Parentheses have the highest priority. It means brackets i.e. ( ).
Next is Exponential.
Then Multiplication and Division have same precedence.
Then Addition and Subtraction have same precedence.

Now a valid question comes in mind - which operator should be considered first if they have the same precedence?
The answer is that if operators have the same precedence, then they are evaluated from left to right. E.g. - 3-2+2 will be evaluated from left to right. It means that 3-2 will be evaluated first (as it is in left) and 3-2 is 1. Thus the expression will become 1+2 and will finally get evaluated as 3.

E.g.-
8/4+3-5*6+8**2
Here, among all the operators, '**' has the highest priority. So, it will be evaluated first.
So the expression now becomes 8/4+3-5*6+64.
Solving, '*' and '/' first from left to right.
2+3-30+64
Now solving, '+' and '-' from left to right
39
So, the answer is 39

Now you are ready to go for if and else.

Odd and even example

a = gets.chomp.to_i
if a%2 == 0
  puts "EVEN"
else
  puts "ODD"
end

if a%2 == 0 : This is very simple to understand. a%2 will give the remainder of the division of a by 2. We know that if a number is divisible by 2, then it is even. So, if 'a' is divisible by 2, then 'a%2' will be 0.
So, the whole story is that if a is divisible by 2 (a%2==0), then puts "EVEN" will be executed otherwise puts "ODD" will be executed.

if under if

Yes, we can also use one if inside another. Let's see how to do this.

puts "Enter salary"
a = gets.chomp.to_i
puts "Enter sex M/F"
b = gets.chomp
if a>10000
  if b == "M"
    puts "Your salary is good and you are a male"
  else
    puts "Your salary is good and you are a female"
  end
else
  if b == "M"
    puts "Your salary is not so good and you are a male"
  else
    puts "Your salary is not so good and you are a female"
  end
end

This is also called nesting. It is very simple. After giving input, firstly, the condition of top-most 'if' will be checked i.e. a > 10000. If it is true, then the statements inside this 'if' will be executed. The first statement inside this 'if' is if b == "M". So, this will be executed and if the condition of this inner if is also true, then the statements inside it will be executed otherwise the statments inside the corresponding else will be executed.

So, after giving inputs of '12000' and 'F', the 'if' with the condition 'a > 10000' is true, so the statement inside it will be executed. Now inside it, the first statement is b == "M" and it is false. So, the statement inside the corresponding 'else' will be executed i.e. puts "Your salary is good and you are a female".

Using elsif

elsif is used for else if. Imagine that there are 10 pockets of candies and each of them costs 1 coin. Now, if you have more than 10 coins, then you will buy 10. Else if you have 5 coins, then you will buy 5 pockets. Else you will buy less than 5 pockets. We do the same thing in Ruby. See this example to understand this.

puts "Enter salary"
a = gets.chomp.to_i
puts "Enter sex M/F"
b = gets.chomp
if a>10000 && b == "M"
  puts "Your salary is good and you are a male"
elsif a>10000 && b == "F"
  puts "Your salary is good and you are a female"
elsif a<=10000 && b == "M"
  puts "Your salary is not so good and you are a male"
elsif a<=10000 && b == "F"
  puts "Your salary is not so good and you are a female"
else
  puts "Enter valid input"
end

I hope that you have already got this by just an example. Next lines will make it even clearer.
Firstly, the condition in 'if' will be checked.
If this condition is true, then only 'if' will be executed (i.e. its corresponding statement will be executed) and if it is false, then the compiler will check below.
If 'if' is false, then the condition in 'elsif' will be checked. In the same way, if this condition is true, then its statements will be executed, otherwise the compiler will come below.
If the conditions of 'if' and all 'elsif' are false, then only the statement corresponding to else(i.e. puts "Enter valid input") will be executed.

if condition
  statement
  statement
  ...
elsif
  statement
  statement
  ...
elsif
  statement
  statement
  ...
elsif
  statement
  statement
  ...
elsif
  statement
  statement
  ...
else
  statement
  statement
  ...
end

We can have any number of 'elsif' after 'if'.

In the above example, we have given inputs of '8000' and 'M'. So, the condition in 'if' ( a>10000 && b == "M" ) is false since a is less than 10000. Now coming to the next 'elsif' (a>10000 && b == "F"), it is also false. Now coming to next 'elsif' ( a<=10000 && b == "M" ), it is true because 8000 < 10000 and also 'b' is 'M'. So, the statement inside this 'elsif' got executed and 'Your salary is not so good and you are a male' got printed on the screen.