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JavaScript JavaScript Basics (Retired) Making Decisions with Conditional Statements Introducing Conditional Statements

Heidi Toft
Heidi Toft
1,894 Points
Posted by Heidi Toft
Heidi Toft
1,894 Points

Conditional Statement

When I get to adding the else statement and the second alert it does not work. I have looked at the code and I cannot figure out what is missing or wrong. Please help. Thank you, Heidi

app.js 
var answer = prompt("What is the best programming language?");
if (answer === 'JavaScript'); {
  alert ("You are correct");
} else {
  alert ("JavaScript is the best language!");
}
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
  <title>JavaScript Basics</title>
</head>
<body>
<script src="app.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

2 Answers

andren
andren
28,558 Points
andren
andren
28,558 Points

The issue is the semicolon in this line:

if (answer === 'JavaScript'); { // <- ; does not belong there

You are not meant to put a semicolon after the conditions of an if statement or similar type of statements. The semicolon tells JavaScript that you are done declaring the if statement even though you have not actually provided it with the code to run yet.

If you remove that semicolon like this:

var answer = prompt("What is the best programming language?");
if (answer === 'JavaScript') {
  alert ("You are correct");
} else {
  alert ("JavaScript is the best language!");
}

Then your code will work.

Heidi Toft
Heidi Toft
1,894 Points
Heidi Toft
Heidi Toft
1,894 Points

Thank you. I think I now remember hearing about that in the video.

Maxime Duhamel
Maxime Duhamel
7,169 Points
Maxime Duhamel
Maxime Duhamel
7,169 Points

Hi, Really a very little mistake. When you write an if statement the condition is not ended by a semi-column. You can jump right to the curly brace. Format is : 

if (condition to check) {
  action to execute;
  other action to execute;
} else {
  action to execute when none of the above conditions are true;
}

Syntax is sometime frustrating ^^

Max

Heidi Toft
Heidi Toft
1,894 Points
Heidi Toft
Heidi Toft
1,894 Points

Thank you. I figured it had to be something small but makes a big impact.

Thanks!

Maxime Duhamel
Maxime Duhamel
7,169 Points
Maxime Duhamel
Maxime Duhamel
7,169 Points

You are welcome Heidi, Keep making mistakes like this as this is the best way to think about what went wrong and solve it easier next time you run into it.