Introduction to Decision Control Structure in C

Decision !!!

we all need to alter our actions in the face of changing circumstances. If the weather is fine, then I will go for a stroll. If the highway is busy I would take a diversion. If the pitch takes spin, we would win the match. If she says no, I would look elsewhere. If you like this article, I would write the next edition. You can notice that all these decisions depend on some condition being met.

C language too must be able to perform different sets of actions depending on the circumstances. In fact this is what makes it worth its salt. C has three major decision making instructions—the if statement, the if-else statement, and the switch statement. A fourth, somewhat less important structure is the one that uses conditional operators.

In the programs written easlier we have used sequence control structure in which the various steps are executed sequentially, i.e. in the same order in which they appear in the program. In fact to execute the instructions sequentially, we don’t have to do anything at all.

By default the instructions in a program are executed sequentially. However, in serious programming situations, seldom do we want the instructions to be executed sequentially.

Many a times, we want a set of instructions to be executed in one situation, and an entirely different set of instructions to be executed in another situation. This kind of situation is dealt in C programs using a decision control instruction.

As mentioned earlier, a decision control instruction can be implemented in C using:

• The if statement
• The if-else statement
• The conditional operators

Posts to Review:

Multiple Statements within if in C If Statement in C if else statement in c Hierarchy of Operators Revisited in C