why use an else statement?

i think you answered it for me. i responded to the previous two answers with the question you just answered. the question was... if the code is written outside of the else statement, it will always run regardless of the if and elif statements. so you have to put the default/go-to option inside an else statement or it will always run. is that correct?

my original reasoning was... if the if statement is false, the program just moves along. so it would still hit the next command, so why put it in an else statement if it was going to hit it anyways. but i think you cleared that up for me.

thanks for your thoughtful response. very helpful. really appreciate it.

Glad it helped, you can close your question by selecting best answer to any of the answer you received. Good Luck :)

thanks for the thoughtful reply. i really appreciate it. let me know if the following is wrong logic... if the seat type is not vip or premium, it will set the price to 40 as contained in the else statement. i get that much. but why is the else needed at all in this case? doesn't the program skip over the if and elif statements if they're not true and move on to the next line of code? so couldn't you just put price = 40 after the if and elif statements as a standalone, and not in an else statement?

or is the following logic accurate?... if the else price of 40 is not contained in an else statement, and if the seat type is vip, it will assign the price as 90 for vip, then skip the elif price, and move on to price = 40 and reassign it as 40 overriding the vip price of 90. is that correct? is that why it must be contained in an else statement?

or... am i way off? lol.

It sounds like you have it correctly. Any assignment made after the conditionals (and outside of an "else") will override any previous assignments. That's why the "else" is useful. And of course, this is a simplified example and in actual practice there may be much more than just an assignment involved with each condition.

brilliant! thanks again.

after a bit more research, i think i'm starting to grasp it a little more. however, in your example... if the friend is not available (if the if statement is false), won't the program simply move on the next line of code anyway? if so, why put the friend not available option in an else statement? wouldn't it suffice on its own outside the else statement?

or... will it always run the friend not available scenario even if the friend is available? so... friend is available, you talk with friend, then it moves to the next line of code which executes the leave voicemail. so it's always leaving voicemail regardless if the friend is available or not. is that accurate?

thanks for your thoughtful response! really appreciate it.

Hi Shaun Barbour ,

That's a great follow-up question. So, the elements within an if / if else / else are all conditionally run.

However, your question is insightful because it does depend on when and where the if / if else / else statement is used.

For instance, on the condition that your if statement is utilized in a function, you could do something like this:

contactFriend(friendPhoneNumber) {

var isFriendAvailable = callFriend(friendPhoneNumber); // returns true or false. True is "answers", false is "he does not answer"

// In IF statements, if the variable is a boolean, then it will be true or false. Hence, I'm not doing something like "If( var == true)"
  if(isFriendAvailable) {
    // Your friend answers, so you talk with him.
    talkWithFriend();
    return true;
  } 
  // here you do not NEED an "IF ELSE". Why? Well, there is no such thing as a partial answer. He answers or not. Therefore, if he does not answer, I want to do something else.
  leaveVoiceMail();
  return false;
}

The above would work because of the use of a return statement: What is a return?

Therefore after the talkWithFriend(); code is run, it would then return true; and therefore not get to the code to leaveVoiceMail();.

However, the else statement is very use if you're wanting to use code after the conditional statement.

contactFriend(friendPhoneNumber) {

var isFriendAvailable = callFriend(friendPhoneNumber); // returns true or false. True is "answers", false is "he does not answer"

// In IF statements, if the variable is a boolean, then it will be true or false. Hence, I'm not doing something like "If( var == true)"
  if(isFriendAvailable) {
    // Your friend answers, so you talk with him.
    talkWithFriend();
  } else {
  // here you do not NEED an "IF ELSE". Why? Well, there is no such thing as a partial answer. He answers or not. Therefore, if he does not answer, I want to do something else.
    leaveVoiceMail();
  }

  callWifeAndUpdateHer();
}

Now, in the code above, I want to call my wife and update her, whether the friend answers or not. (Let's pretend I'm having a party and I'm trying to get RSVPs. So she needs to know if I got in contact or not.).

In this instance, I don't want to return true; after I talk to my friend because there is more code that I want to run, namely calling my wife.

Finally, Else statements can be helpful to the human eye / understanding. It allows us to see code as we would speak it (or approximately how we would speak it).

"I am going to call my friend, else I'm going to leave a voicemail."

I hope I clarified the above. :)