2.
7 CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS
Dspecify
ecision making structures require the programmer to
one or more conditions to be evaluated or tested by
the program, along with a statement or statements to be
executed if the condition is determined to be true, and
optionally, other statements to be executed if the condition is
determined to be false.
Following is the general form of a typical decision making
structure found in most of the programming languages −
In the world of R, data analysis often involves making
decisions based on speci c conditions. This is where
conditional statements come in –powerful tools that control
the ow of your code based on whether certain criteria are
met. Here, we'll delve into three essential conditional
statements: if, else if, and switch.
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Statement & Description
if statement
An if statement consists of a Boolean expression followed
by one or more statements.
if...else statement
An if statement can be followed by an optional else
statement, which executes when the Boolean expression is
false.
switch statement
A switch statement allows a variable to be tested for
equality against a list of values.
IF Statement:
Imagine you're analyzing customer data and want to o er
a discount if their purchase amount exceeds a certain
threshold. The if statement allows you to execute speci c
code only when a condition is TRUE. Here's the basic
structure:
if (condition) {
# Code to execute if the condition is TRUE
}
Here is an example code using if statement:
I n t h i s ex a m p l e , t h e i f s t a t e m e n t c h e c k s i f
purchase_amount is greater than discount_threshold. If
TRUE, the code within the curly braces calculates the
discount and prints a message.
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purchase_amount <- 150
discount_threshold <- 100
if (purchase_amount > discount_threshold) {
discount <- purchase_amount * 0.1 # Calculate 10% discount
print(paste("Congratulations! You qualify for a", discount, “discount."))
}
IF-ELSE Statement:
Life is rarely a simple yes or no. The else if statement
extends the if functionality by allowing you to check
additional conditions if the initial one is FALSE. Here's the
syntax:
if (condition1) {
# Code to execute if condition1 is TRUE
} else if (condition2) {
# Code to execute if condition1 is FALSE and condition2 is TRUE
}
This example uses nested if and else if statements to
determine the grade based on the exam score and the
grading scale de ned as a named vector.
exam_score <- 85
grading_scale <- c("A" = 90:100, "B" = 80:89, "C" = 70:79)
if (exam_score >= grading_scale$A[1]) {
grade <- "A"
} else if (exam_score >= grading_scale$B[1]) {
grade <- "B"
} else {
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grade <- "C" # Implicit else block if all previous conditions are FALSE
}
print(paste("Your exam score:", exam_score, "results in a grade of:", grade))
Switch Statement:
The else if statement extends the if functionality by
allowing you to check additional conditions if the initial one is
FALSE. Here's the syntax:
switch (expression, value1 = code1,
value2 = code2,
...,
default = code_default)
This example uses the switch statement to check the
value of the fruit variable against available options. If a match
is found, the corresponding code block is executed, printing a
message. The default clause handles cases where the fruit is
not listed.
fruit <- "apple"
available_fruits <- c("apple", "banana", “orange")
switch (fruit,
apple = print("We have delicious apples!”),
banana = print("Fresh bananas are in stock!”),
orange = print("Get your vitamin C with our oranges!”),
default = print("Sorry, we don't have that fruit in stock.")
)
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