Python control flow

The control flow of a Python program is regulated by :

➢ conditional statements;
➢ loops;
➢ function calls.

1. Comparison Operators

Operator Meaning

== Equal to

!= Not equal to

< Less than

> Greater Than

<= Less than or Equal to

>= Greater than or Equal to

➢ These operators evaluate to True or False depending on the values you give them.

Examples:

>>> 42 == 42 True

>>> 40 == 42 False

>>> 'hello' == 'hello' True

>>> 'hello' == 'Hello' False

>>> 'dog' != 'cat' True

>>> 42 == 42.0True

>>> 42 == '42'False

2. Boolean Operators

➢ There are three Boolean operators: and, or, and not.

➢ The and Operator’s Truth Table:

Expression Evaluates to

True and True True

True and False False

False and True False

False and False False

➢ The or Operator’s Truth Table:

Expression Evaluates to

True or True True

True or False True

False or True True

False or False False

➢ The not Operator’s Truth Table:

Expression Evaluates to

not True False

 Expression Evaluates to

not False True

3. Mixing Operators

➢ You can mix boolean and comparison operators:

>>> (4 < 5) and (5 < 6) True

>>> (4 < 5) and (9 < 6) False

>>> (1 == 2) or (2 == 2) True

➢ Also, you can mix use multiple Boolean operators in an expression, along with
the comparison operators:

>>> 2 + 2 == 4 and not 2 + 2 == 5 and 2 * 2 == 2 + 2 True

4. if Statements

➢ The if statement evaluates an expression, and if that expression is True, it then

executes the following indented code:

>>> name = 'Debora'

>>> if name == 'Debora':

print('Hi, Debora') # Hi, Debora

>>> if name != 'George':

print('You are not George') # You are not George

➢ The else statement executes only if the evaluation of the if and all the elif
expressions are False:

>>> name = 'Debora'

>>> if name == 'George':

print('Hi, George.')

else:

print('You are not George') # You are not George

➢ Only after the if statement expression is False, the elif statement is evaluated
and executed:

>>> name = 'George'

>>> if name == 'Debora':

print('Hi Debora!')

elif name == 'George':

print('Hi George!')...# Hi George!

➢ the elif and else parts are optional.

>>> name = 'Antony'

>>> if name == 'Debora':

print('Hi Debora!')

elif name == 'George':

print('Hi George!')

else:

print('Who are you?') #Who are you?

5. Ternary Conditional Operator

Many programming languages have a ternary operator, which define a conditional

expression. The most common usage is to make a terse, simple conditional
assignment statement. In other words, it offers one-line code to evaluate the first
expression if the condition is true, and otherwise it evaluates the second expression.

<expression1> if <condition> else <expression2>

➢ Example:

>>> age = 15

>>> # this if statement:

>>> if age < 18:

print('kid')

else:

print('adult') # output: kid

>>> # is equivalent to this ternary operator:

>>> print('kid' if age < 18 else 'adult')# output: kid

➢ Ternary operators can be chained:

>>> age = 15

>>> # this ternary operator:

>>> print('kid' if age < 13 else 'teen' if age < 18 else 'adult')

>>> # is equivalent to this if statement:

>>> if age < 18:

if age < 13:

print('kid')

else:

print('teen')
 else:

print('adult') # output: teen

6. Switch-Case Statement

➢ Switch-Case statements

In computer programming languages, a switch statement is a type of selection control

mechanism used to allow the value of a variable or expression to change the control
flow of program execution via search and map.

The Switch-Case statements, or Structural Pattern Matching, was firstly introduced

in 2020 via PEP 622, and then officially released with Python 3.10 in September
2022.

Official Tutorial

The PEP 636 provides an official tutorial for the Python Pattern matching or
Switch-Case statements.

Matching single values

>>> response_code = 201

>>> match response_code:

... case 200:

... print("OK")

... case 201:

... print("Created")

... case 300:

... print("Multiple Choices")

... case 307:

... print("Temporary Redirect")

... case 404:

... print("404 Not Found")

... case 500:

... print("Internal Server Error")

... case 502:

... print("502 Bad Gateway")...

# Created

Matching with the or Pattern

In this example, the pipe character (| or or) allows python to return the same response
for two or more cases.

>>> response_code = 502

>>> match response_code:

... case 200 | 201:

... print("OK")

... case 300 | 307:

... print("Redirect")

... case 400 | 401:

... print("Bad Request")

... case 500 | 502:

... print("Internal Server Error")

...# Internal Server Error

Matching by the length of an Iterable

>>> today_responses = [200, 300, 404, 500]

>>> match today_responses:

... case [a]:

... print(f"One response today: {a}")

... case [a, b]:

... print(f"Two responses today: {a} and {b}")

... case [a, b, *rest]

:... print(f"All responses: {a}, {b}, {rest}")...

# All responses: 200, 300, [404, 500]

Default value

The underscore symbol (_) is used to define a default case:

>>> response_code = 800

>>> match response_code:

... case 200 | 201:

... print("OK")

... case 300 | 307:

... print("Redirect")

... case 400 | 401:

... print("Bad Request")

... case 500 | 502:

... print("Internal Server Error")

... case _:

... print("Invalid Code")

...# Invalid Code

Matching Builtin Classes

>>> response_code = "300"

>>> match response_code:

... case int():

... print('Code is a number')

... case str():

... print('Code is a string')

... case _:

... print('Code is neither a string nor a number')

...# Code is a string

Guarding Match-Case Statements

>>> response_code = 300

>>> match response_code:

... case int():

... if response_code > 99 and response_code < 500:

... print('Code is a valid number')

... case _:

... print('Code is an invalid number')

...# Code is a valid number

7. while Loop Statements

➢ The while statement is used for repeated execution as long as an expression is

True:

>>> spam = 0

>>> while spam < 5:

... print('Hello, world.')

... spam = spam + 1

...# Hello, world.

# Hello, world.

# Hello, world.

# Hello, world.

# Hello, world.

8. break Statements

➢ If the execution reaches a break statement, it immediately exits the while loop’s
clause:

>>> while True:

... name = input('Please type your name: ')

... if name == 'your name':

... break...

>>> print('Thank you!')

# Please type your name: your name# Thank you!

9. continue Statements

➢ When the program execution reaches a continue statement, the program

execution immediately jumps back to the start of the loop.

>>> while True:

... name = input('Who are you? ')

... if name != 'Joe':

... continue

... password = input('Password? (It is a fish.): ')

... if password == 'swordfish':

... break...

>>> print('Access granted.')

# Who are you?

Charles

# Who are you?

Debora

# Who are you? Joe

# Password? (It is a fish.): swordfish

# Access granted.
10. For loop

➢ The for loop iterates over a list, tuple, dictionary, set or string:

>>> pets = ['Bella', 'Milo', 'Loki']

>>> for pet in pets:

... print(pet)

...# Bella# Milo# Loki

11. The range() function

➢ The range() function returns a sequence of numbers. It starts from 0, increments

by 1, and stops before a specified number:

>>> for i in range(5)

:... print(f'Will stop at 5! or 4? ({i})')

...# Will stop at 5! or 4? (0)

# Will stop at 5! or 4? (1)

# Will stop at 5! or 4? (2)

# Will stop at 5! or 4? (3)

# Will stop at 5! or 4? (4)

The range() function can also modify it’s 3 defaults arguments. The first two will be
the start and stop values, and the third will be the step argument. The step is the
amount that the variable is increased by after each iteration.

# range(start, stop, step)

>>> for i in range(0, 10, 2

):... print(i)...
# 0# 2# 4# 6# 8

You can even use a negative number for the step argument to make the for loop count
down instead of up.

>>> for i in range(5, -1, -1):

... print(i)...

# 5# 4# 3# 2# 1# 0

12. For else statement

This allows to specify a statement to execute in case of the full loop has been
executed. Only useful when a break condition can occur in the loop:

>>> for i in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]:

... if i == 3:

... break

... else:

... print("only executed when no item is equal to 3")

13. Ending a Program with sys.exit()

exit() function allows exiting Python.

>>> import sys

>>> while True:

... feedback = input('Type exit to exit: ')

... if feedback == 'exit':

... print(f'You typed {feedback}.')

... sys.exit()...

# Type exit to exit: open

# Type exit to exit: close

# Type exit to exit: exit

# You typed exit