Introduction to Programming

Decision Structures and Boolean Logic

(BSCS 1350)
Dr. Ghadah Alghamdi
[email protected]

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Lecture Outline
• The if Statement
• The if-else Statement
• Comparing Strings
• Nested Decision Structures and the if-elif-else Statement
• Logical Operators
• Boolean Variables
• Conditional Expressions
• Assignment Expressions and the Walrus Operator
The if Statement
• Control structure: logical design that controls order in which
set of statements execute
• Sequence structure: set of statements that execute in the
order they appear
• Decision structure: specific action(s) performed only if a
condition exists
• Also known as selection structure
The if Statement (cont’d.)
• In flowchart, diamond represents true/false condition that
must be tested
• Actions can be conditionally executed
• Performed only when a condition is true
• Single alternative decision structure: provides only one
alternative path of execution
• If condition is not true, exit the structure
• Another name for this is: (Simple decision structure)
The if Statement (cont’d.)
The if Statement (cont’d.)
• Python syntax:
if condition:
Statement
Statement
• First line known as the if clause
• Includes the keyword if followed by condition
• The condition can be true or false
• When the if statement executes, the condition is tested, and if it is true
the block statements are executed. otherwise, block statements are
skipped
Boolean Expressions and
Relational Operators
• Boolean expression: expression tested by if statement to determine if
it is true or false
• Example: a > b
• true if a is greater than b; false otherwise
• Relational operator: determines whether a specific relationship exists
between two values
• Example: greater than (>)
Boolean Expressions and
Relational Operators (cont’d.)
• >= and <= operators test more than one relationship
• It is enough for one of the relationships to exist for the expression
to be true
• == operator determines whether the two operands are equal to one
another
• Do not confuse with assignment operator (=)
• != operator determines whether the two operands are not equal
Boolean Expressions and
Relational Operators (cont’d.)
Boolean Expressions and Relational Operators
(cont’d.)
• Using a Boolean expression with the > relational operator
Boolean Expressions and
Relational Operators (cont’d.)
• Any relational operator can be used in a decision block
• Example: if balance == 0
• Example: if payment != balance
• It is possible to have a block inside another block
• Example: if statement inside a function
• Statements in inner block must be indented with respect to the
outer block
Single-Line if Statements
An if statement can be written on a single line if it executes
only one statement.

• Python syntax:
if condition: statement
• Example:
if score > 59: print('You passed!')
Lecture Outline
• The if Statement
• The if-else Statement
• Comparing Strings
• Nested Decision Structures and the if-elif-else Statement
• Logical Operators
• Boolean Variables
• Conditional Expressions
• Assignment Expressions and the Walrus Operator
The if-else Statement
• Dual alternative decision structure: two possible paths of execution
– One is taken if the condition is true, and the other if the condition
is false
• Syntax: if condition:
statements
else:
other statements
• if clause and else clause must be aligned
• Statements must be consistently indented
The if-else Statement (cont’d.)
The if-else Statement (cont’d.)
Comparing Strings
• Strings can be compared using the == and != operators
• String comparisons are case sensitive
• Strings can be compared using >, <, >=, and <=
• Compared character by character based on the ASCII
values for each character
• If shorter word is substring of longer word, longer word is
greater than shorter word
Comparing Strings (cont’d.)
Lecture Outline
• The if Statement
• The if-else Statement
• Comparing Strings
• Nested Decision Structures and the if-elif-else Statement
• Logical Operators
• Boolean Variables
• Conditional Expressions
• Assignment Expressions and the Walrus Operator
Nested Decision Structures and the if-elif-
else Statement
• A decision structure can be nested inside another decision structure
• Commonly needed in programs
• Example:
• Determine if someone qualifies for a loan, they must meet two
conditions:
• Must earn at least $30,000/year
• Must have been employed for at least two years
• Check first condition, and if it is true, check second condition
Nested Decision Structures and
the if-elif-else Statement (cont’d.)

• Important to use proper indentation in a nested decision structure

• Important for Python interpreter
• Makes code more readable for programmer
• Rules for writing nested if statements:
• else clause should align with matching if clause

• Statements in each block must be consistently indented

The if-elif-else Statement
• if-elif-else statement: special version of a decision structure
• Makes logic of nested decision structures simpler to write
• Can include multiple elif statements
• Syntax:
if condition_1:
statement(s)
elif condition_2:
statement(s) Insert as many elif clauses
elif condition_3: as necessary.
statement(s)
else
statement(s)
The if-elif-else Statement (cont’d.)
• Alignment used with if-elif-else statement:
• if, elif, and else clauses are all aligned
• Conditionally executed blocks are consistently indented
• if-elif-else statement is never required, but logic easier to
follow
• Can be accomplished by nested if-else
• Code can become complex, and indentation can cause
problematic long lines

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Lecture Outline
• The if Statement
• The if-else Statement
• Comparing Strings
• Nested Decision Structures and the if-elif-else Statement
• Logical Operators
• Boolean Variables
• Conditional Expressions
• Assignment Expressions and the Walrus Operator
Logical Operators
• Logical operators: operators that can be used to create
complex Boolean expressions
• and operator and or operator: binary operators, connect
two Boolean expressions into a compound Boolean
expression
• not operator: unary operator, reverses the truth of its
Boolean operand
The and Operator
• Takes two Boolean expressions as operands
• Creates compound Boolean expression that is true only when both
sub expressions are true
• Can be used to simplify nested decision structures
• Truth table for Expression Value of the
Expression
the and operator
false and false false
false and true false
true and false false
true and true true
The or Operator
• Takes two Boolean expressions as operands
• Creates compound Boolean expression that is true when either of
the sub expressions is true
• Can be used to simplify nested decision structures
• Truth table for Expression Value of the
the or operator Expression

false and false false

false and true true
true and false true
true and true true
Short-Circuit Evaluation
• Short circuit evaluation: deciding the value of a compound
Boolean expression after evaluating only one sub expression
• Performed by the or and and operators
• For or operator: If left operand is true, compound
expression is true. Otherwise, evaluate right operand
• For and operator: If left operand is false, compound
expression is false. Otherwise, evaluate right operand
The not Operator
• Takes one Boolean expressions as operand and reverses its logical
value
• Sometimes it may be necessary to place parentheses around an
expression to clarify to what you are applying the not operator
• Truth table for the not operator
Expression Value of the Expression
true false
false true
Checking Numeric Ranges with Logical
Operators
• To determine whether a numeric value is within a specific
range of values, use and
• Example: x >= 10 and x <= 20
• To determine whether a numeric value is outside of a
specific range of values, use or
• Example: x < 10 or x > 20
Lecture Outline
• The if Statement
• The if-else Statement
• Comparing Strings
• Nested Decision Structures and the if-elif-else Statement
• Logical Operators
• Boolean Variables
• Conditional Expressions
• Assignment Expressions and the Walrus Operator
Boolean Variables
• Boolean variable: references one of two values, True or
False
• Represented by bool data type
• Commonly used as flags
• Flag: variable that signals when some condition exists in a
program
• Flag set to False → condition does not exist
• Flag set to True → condition exists
Conditional Expressions
• Syntax:

value_1 if condition else value_2

• condition is a Boolean expression that is tested

• If condition is true, the expression gives us value_1
• If condition is false, the expression gives us value_2
Conditional Expressions
• Example:

grade = 'Pass' if score > 59 else 'Fail'

• If score is greater than 59, grade is assigned 'Pass'. Otherwise,

grade is assigned 'Fail'.
• Equivalent to:
if score > 59:
grade = 'Pass'
else:
grade = 'Fail'
Conditional Expressions
• Example:

max = num1 if num1 > num2 else num2

• If num1 is greater than num2, max is assigned num1. Otherwise, max

is assigned num2.
• Equivalent to:
if num1 > num2:
max = num1
else:
max = num2
Assignment Expressions and the Walrus
Operator
• The walrus operator := is an enhanced assignment operator

• You use the walrus operator to create assignment

expressions

• An assignment expression does two things:

• It assigns a value to a variable
• It returns the value that was assigned to the variable
Assignment Expressions and the Walrus
Operator
• Example:
print(num := 99)

• This statement does two things:

• It assigns 99 to the num variable
• It prints the value that was assigned to the num variable,
99
Assignment Expressions and the Walrus
Operator
• Example:
if (area := width * height) > 100:
print('The area is too large')

• This if statement does the following:

• The area variable is assigned the value of width *
height
• If the value that was assigned to area is greater than
100, the message The area is too large is displayed.
Assignment Expressions and the Walrus
Operator
• Precedence of the walrus operator
• The walrus operator has the lowest precedence of all the
operators in Python

• When using the walrus operator in a larger expression that also

uses other operators, the walrus operator will work last

• In most cases, you need to put parentheses around the

assignment expression to make sure the walrus operator assigns
the correct value to its variable
Assignment Expressions and the Walrus
Operator
• An assignment expression is not a complete statement

• For example, this alone causes an error:

num := 99

• It must be written as part of a larger statement

print(num := 99)
Thank you

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