Section5.3

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## 5.3 if-then-else

Like many other programming languages, Axiom uses the three keywords if if, then then and else else to form conditional conditional expressions. The else part of the conditional is optional. The expression between the if and then keywords is a predicate: an expression that evaluates to or is convertible to either true or false, that is, a Boolean. Boolean

The syntax for conditional expressions is

if predicate then expression 1 else expression 2

where the else expression 2 part is optional. The value returned from a conditional expression is expression 1 if the predicate evaluates to true and expression 2 otherwise. If no else clause is given, the value is always the unique value of Void.

An if-then-else expression always returns a value. If the else clause is missing then the entire expression returns the unique value of Void. If both clauses are present, the type of the value returned by if is obtained by resolving the types of the values of the two clauses. See ugTypesResolve for more information.

The predicate must evaluate to, or be convertible to, an object of type Boolean: true or false. By default, the equal sign = creates equation an equation.

This is an equation. Equation In particular, it is an object of type Equation Polynomial Integer.

x + 1 = y

x+1=y

Type: Equation Polynomial Integer

However, for predicates in if expressions, Axiom equality testing places a default target type of Boolean on the predicate and equality testing is performed. Boolean Thus you need not qualify the ``='' in any way. In other contexts you may need to tell Axiom that you want to test for equality rather than create an equation. In those cases, use ``@'' and a target type of Boolean. See section ugTypesPkgCall for more information.

The compound symbol meaning ``not equal'' in Axiom is inequality testing ``∼=''. _notequal@ ∼= This can be used directly without a package call or a target specification. The expression a∼=b is directly translated into not (a=b).

Many other functions have return values of type Boolean. These include ``<'', ``<='', ``>'', ``>='', ``∼='' and ``member?''. By convention, operations with names ending in ``?'' return Boolean values.

The usual rules for piles are suspended for conditional expressions. In .input files, the then and else keywords can begin in the same column as the corresponding if but may also appear to the right. Each of the following styles of writing if-then-else expressions is acceptable:

if i>0 then output("positive") else output("nonpositive")
if i > 0 then output("positive")
else output("nonpositive")
if i > 0 then output("positive")
else output("nonpositive")
if i > 0
then output("positive")
else output("nonpositive")
if i > 0
then output("positive")
else output("nonpositive")

A block can follow the then or else keywords. In the following two assignments to a, the then and else clauses each are followed by two-line piles. The value returned in each is the value of the second line.

a :=
if i > 0 then
j := sin(i * pi())
exp(j + 1/j)
else
j := cos(i * 0.5 * pi())
log(abs(j)**5 + 1)
a :=
if i > 0
then
j := sin(i * pi())
exp(j + 1/j)
else
j := cos(i * 0.5 * pi())
log(abs(j)**5 + 1)

These are both equivalent to the following:

a :=
if i > 0 then (j := sin(i * pi()); exp(j + 1/j))
else (j := cos(i * 0.5 * pi()); log(abs(j)**5 + 1))
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