Example: If-then-else

If-then-else statements are the controlling structures in each program. The most simplest form is:

a <- 5.0
b <- 10.0
if (a < b) {
  print("a is smaller than b")
}

## [1] "a is smaller than b"

Such an if-statement can be extended by n if-else statements and - optionally - an else-statement. To illustrate this, we start with another if-statement as the one above but include it later:

if (a < b/2) {
  print("a is much smaller than b")
} else if (a < b) {
  print("a is smaller than b")
} else if (a == b) {
  print("a equals b")
} 

## [1] "a is smaller than b"

In such a structure, the first if-statment is evaluated. If it is true, all following else-if- (or else-)statements are skiped and the execution continues below the decission structure.

The above example would not print anything if a is larger than b. For this case, other else-if-statements could be used but if no differentiation should be made for any case of a larger than b, this can also be solved by a final else-statement.

a <- 15.0
b <- 10.0
if (a < b/2) {
  print("a is much smaller than b")
} else if (a < b) {
  print("a is smaller than b")
} else if (a == b) {
  print("a equals b")
} else {
  print("a is larger than b.")
}

## [1] "a is larger than b."

Of course, boolean expressions could also be used within such structures:

c <- 20.0
if (a < b & a == c) {
  print("a is smaller than b and equal to c")
} else if (a > b & a == c) {
  print("a is larger than b and equal to c")
} else {
  print("a non-equal to c.")
}

## [1] "a non-equal to c."

The above examples document if-statements which are executed if the condition is true since this is the default action for something like a < b. Of course, one can also check if a condition is false:

test <- a < b
if (test == FALSE) {
  print("a is larger than b")
} else {
  print("a is smaller than or equal b.")
}

## [1] "a is larger than b"