Conditional structures/ALGOL 68

IF ~ THEN ~ ELSE ~ FI clause

main: (
  INT input := 2;

  IF  3 = input THEN
    # Do something #
  FI;

  IF  3 = input THEN
    # Do something #
  ELSE
    # Do something ELSE #
  FI
)

One line predicates do not any braces:

IF cond THEN
  ~
FI;

IF cond THEN
  ~
ELSE
  ~
FI;

And these may be mixed:

IF cond THEN
  ~
  IF cond THEN
    # multiple expressions #
  ELSE
    ~
  FI;
  ~
FI

Or merged:

IF cond1 THEN
  ~
ELIF cond2 THEN
  # multiple expressions #
ELSE
  ~
FI # etc #

Short-circuit conditionals

The short-circuit evaluation of the ANDIF and ORELSE boolean operators are also often used for control flow.

IF node /= NULL ANDIF next OF node /= NULL ANDIF guarded_test(node) THEN
   next OF node := next OF next OF node
FI

Note that these are not part of the standard library and had to be defined by the user.

Neither the assignment nor guarded_test() will be called IF the previous two conditions aren't met. Other languages such as Pascal don't make that guarantee, and they certainly could not be user defined.

CASE ~ IN ~ OUT ~ ESAC clause

main: (
  INT input := 42;

  CASE input IN
      ~ # Do something, because input = 1 #
    ,
      ~ # Do something, because input = 2 #
    ,
      ~ # Do something, because input = 3 #
    ,
      # fall through to the next statement IF there is no "OUT" #
    OUT
      ~ # Do something ELSE. #
  CASE
)

The "CASE ~ IN ~ OUT ~ ESAC" is directly interchangeable with the "( ~ | ~ | ~ )", hence the above may be written as follows:

main: (
  INT input := 42;

  ( input |
      ~ # Do something, because input = 1 #
    ,
      ~ # Do something, because input = 2 #
    ,
      ~ # Do something, because input = 3 #
      # fall through to the next statement IF there is no "OUT" #
    |
      ~ # Do something ELSE. #
  )
)

Case statements may also be merged:

main:(
  INT a1, a2, b1, b2, c99;
  CASE 99 IN
    a1,
    a2
  OUSE 99 IN
    b1,
    b2
  OUT
    c99
  ESAC := 333
)

In this case a1, a2, b1 and b2 remain undefined, but c99 ends up being half-evil.

Finally labels, and an EXIT "completion symbol" can be used to engineer the more familiar "switch" statement.

STRING food := (
  CASE 666 IN a,b,c OUT else ESAC;
  a:
    "Apple"
  EXIT
  b:
    "Banana"
  EXIT
  c:
    "Carrot"
  EXIT
  else:
    "Baked beans"
);

print((food))

The EXIT "completion symbol" here serves to yield the found value.

Ternary ( ~ | ~ | ~ )

Conditionals in C can also be done with the ternary operator, ?:. ALGOL 68 has the "brief" equivalents ( ~ | ~ | ~ )

main : (
  INT input := 2;
  INT output := (input = 2 | 42 | 4711);  # sets output to 42 #
  INT output2 := (input = 3 | 42 | 4711); # sets output2 to 4711 #

  PROC do_something = INT: random;
  PROC do_something_else = INT: random;
  input := (TRUE | do_something | do_something_else); # only calls do_something() #
)

The "( ~ | ~ | ~ )" is directly interchangeable with the "IF ~ THEN ~ ELSE ~ FI" syntax. Hence the above could be written:

main : (
  INT input := 2;
  INT output := IF input = 2 THEN 42 ELSE 4711 FI;  # sets output to 42 #
  INT output2 := IF input = 3 THEN 42 ELSE 4711 FI; # sets output2 to 4711 #

  PROC do_something = INT: random;
  PROC do_something_else = INT: random;
  input := IF TRUE THEN do_something ELSE do_something_else FI; # only calls do_something() #
)

A more complex example created by combining the above:

main: (
  INT x,y,z;
  CASE 2 IN x,y OUT z ESAC := IF 1+2=2 THEN 333 ELSE 666 FI
)

In the result y becomes fully-evil, with x and z remaining undefined.