1.5.12 How to Write If/Else Statements

When using an if statement to test logic if the conditional fails the code inside the if statement won't run, but many times if the code inside doesn't execute we want something else to happen. To make it so something else happens if the conditional evaluates false we will use the else statement.

Let's look at the logic for the GiveRating method.

Currently if the conditional evaluates to true the Rating will be assigned 4. However, if the conditional evaluates to false the Food won't receive a value at all. Instead of nothing happening if the conditional is false we'd like to have the Rating be assigned 1. To do this, we will add an else statement below the if statement and assign the Rating a value of 1.

Else statements do not need parenthesis after the statement because there isn't anything to test. Else statements are 'catch all' statements so as long as the if statement above it evaluates to false, the else statement will execute.

So when we run the application we can see that the Food's IsGood field is true and it hasn't received a rating yet.

When we step through the method...

...the conditional will evaluate to true, the code in the if statement will execute, and the Rating will be assigned 4.

Let's change the Meatloaf so that it isn't good.

When we step through the method...

...the conditional will evaluate to false, the code in the else statement will execute and the Rating will be assigned 1.