if, elif, and else

What You’ll Learn

You’ll learn how to handle multiple conditions using elif (else if) and provide a fallback using else.

The else Statement

The else keyword catches anything which isn’t caught by the preceding conditions.

age = 15

if age >= 18:
    print("You are an adult.")
else:
    print("You are a minor.")

The elif Statement

The elif keyword is Python’s way of saying “if the previous conditions were not true, then try this condition”.

score = 85

if score >= 90:
    print("Grade: A")
elif score >= 80:
    print("Grade: B")
elif score >= 70:
    print("Grade: C")
else:
    print("Grade: F")

Expected Output:

Grade: B

Order Matters!

Python checks conditions from top to bottom. As soon as it finds a True condition, it executes that block and skips the rest of the if/elif/else chain.

If we put score >= 70 at the top, an 85 would incorrectly get a ‘C’!