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PHP Conditional Statements [if() switch()]

One thing you can do with PHP is add decision making capabilities to your scripts

The most common conditional statement is the if() statement, here is how it is used:

<?php
$number = 10;

if ($number == 10)
{
echo 'The number is ten!';
}
else
{
echo 'The number is not ten!';
}
?>

The result would be: The number is ten.

During this conditional statement we have come across another operator, the two equals signs and all these mean is explicitly equal to.

Here is a list of operators that you may need when using conditional statements:

== //equal to
=== //equal to and of the same type
!== //not equal to and not of the same type
<> //not equal to (same as !=)
< //less than
<= //less than or equal to
> //greater than
>= //greater than or equal to

So using our new found operators we can now create another conditional statement:

<?php
$number = 10;

if ($number >= 11)
{
$result = 'The number is more than eleven or equal to eleven';
}
else
{
$result = 'The number is less than eleven';
}
?>

Now we can have instead of just two possibilities, we can add more using elseif():

<?php
$fruit = 'apple';

if ($fruit == 'apple')
{
$color = 'Red';
}
elseif ($fruit == 'Bannana')
{
$color = 'Yellow';
}
elseif ($fruit == 'Pear')
{
$color = 'Green';
}
else
{
$color = 'Unknown';
}

// Now display the data

echo "<p>The $fruit is $color</p>";

// In this example because the fruit was apple the color will output red so the string will read:
// The apple is red

// If you was to change the fruit to mango the the color would be unknown as there is no color set for mango:
// The mango is Unknown
?>

Switch statement coming very soon!

Nesting conditional statements

It is possible to nest conditional statements in order to handle multiple conditions and this is done so like this:

<?php
if ($shape == 'Square')
{
	if ($color == 'Red')
	{
		if ($size == 'Large')
		{
			$item = 'The item is a large red square';
		}
	}
}
?>

You can use logical operators instead of nesting statements and this is done like this:

<?php
if ($shape == 'Square' && $color == 'Red' && $size == 'Large')
{
$item = 'The item is a large red square';
}
?>

Using logical operators is probably the better way to do things!

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