Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

JavaScript JavaScript Basics (Retired) Making Decisions with Conditional Statements A Basic If Statement

peterson st gourdain
peterson st gourdain
931 Points
Posted by peterson st gourdain
peterson st gourdain
931 Points

whats missing or I'm I using the else if wrong

help

script.js 
var isAdmin = true;
var isStudent = false;
if ('isAdmin = ('true')') {

} else if (alert("Welcome administrator")); {

}
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="script.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Jonas Westerholm
Jonas Westerholm
10,754 Points
Jonas Westerholm
Jonas Westerholm
10,754 Points

Ok, lets have a look at the first line.

if ('isAdmin = ('true')')

isAdmin is a variable and should thus not be used with ' '-marks around it. When using ' ' or " " javascript will think it's a string of characters. The same goes for true. True and false are boolean values (think 1 or 0) and should be used without quotation marks.

= One equal sign (=) sets a variable, while two or three (== or ===) checks if the variables on both sides of the comparator are equal.

The else if syntax is wrong, and it's not needed to use it at all in this case.

This would be the correct solution for this problem

var isAdmin = true;
var isStudent = false;
if(isAdmin == true) {
  alert("Welcome administrator");
}

Should you want to use the else if and else in javascript the solution could look something like this

var isAdmin = true;
var isStudent = false;
if(isAdmin == true) { //This is checked first
  alert("Welcome administrator");
}
else if(isStudent == true) { //if isAdmin turns out to be false, check if isStudent is true
  alert("Welcome Student");
}
else { //if neither isAdmin nor isStudent are true, then do this
  alert("You are neither an admin or a student.");
}

*** For the complete list of issues, see Stevens hints ***

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
230,688 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
230,688 Points

Here's a few hints:

  • statements and expressions should not be enclosed in quotes
  • boolean values (like true) should not be enclosed in quotes
  • a single equal sign ("=") is an assignment operator, a comparison operator is two equal signs ("==")
  • the parentheses following an "if" should contain a comparison expression
  • conditional code goes between the braces that come after the conditional expression
  • there should not be a semicolon between an "if" condition and the brace of the code block