#Javascript

JavaScript IF statements - Part 1 - AND OR conditions

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What are if statements?

Imagine taking a walk in the woods and hearing animal noises. Our mind will wonder, what could this animal be? Is it a cat, a dragon or a wolf? Your unconscious mind will decide, if it's a cat, I will find it and pet it. If it's a dragon or a wolf, I will return home.

That's what if statements are.

In this example, we will check if the noise the animal makes is a meow. If it something else, we will return home.

if (animalNoise === 'meow') {
  console.log("I'm gonna find you and pet you!")
} else {
  console.log("I'm going back home")
}

The code above will work and keep us safe, but there are other animals in the woods that are harmless. We need to think of other possibilities.

OR || condition

Do you like birds? I like birds. We cannot image woods without birds chirping, can we?


if(animalNoise === 'meow' || animalNoise === 'chirp' ){
    console.log(
        "I'll keep walking"
    ) else{
        console.log("time to go home")
    }
}

On this example, we use OR, which is written with ||. If the animalNoise is meow || chirp we will keep walking. if it's anything else, we will return home.

AND && condition

We heard a meow and got excited. We decided to find that cat and pet the heck out of it. But, there is another problem we need to think of.

const currentTime = 5

if (animalNoise === 'meow' && currentTime < 6) {
  console.log("I'm gonna find you and I'm gonna pet you!")
} else {
  console.log("It's getting dark, I should return home")
}

On the above code we will check two conditions. If we hear a meow and && currentTime is less than < 6 we will find that kitty. && means AND, so both conditions must be true otherwise we will return home.

AND && and OR || chained

Can we get into more detail? Yes we can. Enter mom.

const momCalled = false

if (animalNoise === 'meow' || (amimalNoise === 'chirp' && momCalled === false)) {
  console.log('keep walking')
} else {
  console.log('Gotta go back')
}

Here we chained && || together. If the animalNoise is meow || chirp && mom didn't call we can keep walking. We can keep chaining different conditions but this should give us the overall idea.

Closing words

That's how our brains work. We sense information with our eyes, ears, touch and nose and guess what it could be. Our brain is a non-stop if else statement.

On part two, we will discover else if and some other real life examples.

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