1.7 Simple Flow of Control

The last few lines of our example program (other than "return 0") are: if (another_age >= 0) {
cout << "Your age in " << another_year << ": ";
cout << another_age << "\n";
}
else {
cout << "You weren't even born in ";
cout << another_year << "!\n";
}
The "if ... else ..." branching mechanism is a familiar construct in many procedural programming languages. In C++, it is simply called an if statement, and the general syntax is if (condition) {
Statement1;
...
...
StatementN;
} else {
StatementN+1;
...
...
StatementN+M;
}
The "else" part of an "if statement" may be omitted, and furthermore, if there is just one Statement after the "if (condition)", it may be simply written as if (condition)
Statement;

It is quite common to find "if statements" strung together in programs, as follows: ...
...
if (total_test_score < 50)
cout << "You are a failure. You must study much harder.\n";
else if (total_test_score < 65)
cout << "You have just scraped through the test.\n";
else if (total_test_score < 80)
cout << "You have done quite well.\n";
else if (total_test_score < 95)
cout << "Your score is excellent. Well done.\n";
else {
cout << "You cheated!\n";
total_test_score = 0;
}
...
...
This program fragment has quite a complicated logical structure, but we can confirm that it is legal in C++ by referring to the syntax diagram for "if statements". In such diagrams, the terms enclosed in ovals or circles refer to program components that literally appear in programs. Terms enclosed in boxes refer to program components that require further definition, perhaps with another syntax diagram. A collection of such diagrams can serve as a formal definition of a programming language's syntax (although they do not help distinguish between good and bad programming style!).
Below is the syntax diagram for an "if statement". It is best understood in conjunction with the syntax diagram for a "statement". In particular, notice that the diagram doesn't explicitly include the ";" or "{}" delimiters, since these are built into the definition (syntax diagram) of "statement".
1.7.1 Syntax diagram for an If Statement
The C++ compiler accepts the program fragment in our example by counting all of the bold text in ...
...
if (total_test_score < 50)
cout << "You are a failure. You must study much harder.\n";
else if (total_test_score < 65)
cout << "You have just scraped through the test.\n";
else if (total_test_score < 80)
cout << "You have done quite well.\n";
else if (total_test_score < 95)
cout << "Your score is excellent. Well done.\n";
else {
cout << "You cheated!\n";
total_test_score = 0;
}
...
...
as the single statement which must follow the first else.