4.2.3 Statements for Testing Conditions

The `if' statement allows you to decide whether or not to perform some statements based on the value of an arbitrary expression:

if (expression) statements endif

Expression is evaluated and, if it returns a true value, the statements are executed in order; otherwise, nothing more is done.

One frequently wants to perform one set of statements if some condition is true and some other set of statements otherwise. The optional `else' phrase in an `if' statement allows you to do this:

if (expression) statements-1 else statements-2 endif

This statement is executed just like the previous one, except that statements-1 are executed if expression returns a true value and statements-2 are executed otherwise.

Sometimes, one needs to test several conditions in a kind of nested fashion:

if (expression-1) statements-1 else if (expression-2) statements-2 else if (expression-3) statements-3 else statements-4 endif endif endif

Such code can easily become tedious to write and difficult to read. MOO provides a somewhat simpler notation for such cases:

if (expression-1) statements-1 elseif (expression-2) statements-2 elseif (expression-3) statements-3 else statements-4 endif

Note that `elseif' is written as a single word, without any spaces. This simpler version has the very same meaning as the original: evaluate expression-i for i equal to 1, 2, and 3, in turn, until one of them returns a true value; then execute the statements-i associated with that expression. If none of the expression-i return a true value, then execute statements-4.

Any number of `elseif' phrases can appear, each having this form:

elseif (expression) statements

The complete syntax of the `if' statement, therefore, is as follows:

if (expression) statements zero-or-more-elseif-phrases an-optional-else-phrase endif