Java Control Statements | Control Flow in Java

 Java compiler executes the code from top to bottom.

 The statements in the code are executed according to the order in which they appear.

 However, Java provides statements that can be used to control the flow of Java code.

 Such statements are called control flow statements.

 It is one of the fundamental features of Java, which provides a smooth flow of program.

Java provides three types of control flow statements.

1. Decision Making statements

o if statements
o switch statement
2. Loop statements
o do while loop
o while loop
o for loop
o for-each loop
3. Jump statements
o break statement
o continue statement
Decision Making in Java
 As the name suggests, decision-making statements decide which statement to execute and when.
 Decision-making statements evaluate the Boolean expression and control the program flow depending
upon the result of the condition provided.
 A programming language uses control statements to control the flow of execution of a program based on
certain conditions.
 There are two types of decision-making statements in Java, i.e., If statement and switch statement.

1. If Statement:
if statement is the most simple decision-making statement.
It is used to decide whether a certain statement or block of statements will be executed or not
i.e if a certain condition is true then a block of statements is executed otherwise not.

Syntax:
if(condition)
{
// Statements to execute if
// condition is true
}

Here, the condition after evaluation will be either true or false.

if statement accepts boolean values – if the value is true then it will execute the block of
statements under it.
If we do not provide the curly braces ‘{‘ and ‘}’ after if( condition ) then by default if statement
will consider the immediate one statement to be inside its block.

For example,
if(condition) //Assume condition is true
statement1; //part of if block
statement2; // separate from if block

// Here if the condition is true

// if block will consider statement1 as its part and executes in only true
condition
// statement2 will be separate from the if block so it will always executes
whether the condition is true or false.
2) if-else statement
The if-else statement is an extension to the if-statement, which uses another block of code, i.e., else block. The
else block is executed if the condition of the if-block is evaluated as false.

Syntax:
if (condition)
{
// Executes this block if
// condition is true
}
else
{
// Executes this block if
// condition is false
}
// Java program to illustrate if-else statement
import java.util.*;

class IfElseDemo {
public static void main(String args[])
{
int i = 10;

if (i < 15)
System.out.println("i is smaller than 15");
else
System.out.println("i is greater than 15");
}
}
Output
i is smaller than 15

3. nested-if:
A nested if is an if statement that is the target of another if or else. Nested if statements mean
an if statement inside an if statement. Yes, java allows us to nest if statements within if
statements. i.e, we can place an if statement inside another if statement.
Syntax:
if (condition1)
{
// Executes when condition1 is true
if (condition2)
{
// Executes when condition2 is true
}
}
// Java program to illustrate nested-if statement
import java.util.*;

class NestedIfDemo {
public static void main(String args[])
{
int i = 10;

if (i == 10 || i<15) {
// First if statement
if (i < 15)
System.out.println("i is smaller than 15");

// Nested - if statement
// Will only be executed if statement above
// it is true
if (i < 12)
System.out.println(
"i is smaller than 12 too");
} else{
System.out.println("i is greater than 15");
}
}
}
4. if-else-if ladder:
Here, a user can decide among multiple options.The if statements are executed from the top
down. As soon as one of the conditions controlling the if is true, the statement associated with
that ‘if’ is executed, and the rest of the ladder is bypassed. If none of the conditions is true, then
the final else statement will be executed. There can be as many as ‘else if’ blocks associated
with one ‘if’ block but only one ‘else’ block is allowed with one ‘if’ block.
if (condition)
statement;
else if (condition)
statement;
.
.
else
statement;

// Java program to illustrate if-else-if ladder

import java.util.*;

class ifelseifDemo {
public static void main(String args[])
{
int i = 20;

if (i == 10)
System.out.println("i is 10");
else if (i == 15)
System.out.println("i is 15");
else if (i == 20)
System.out.println("i is 20");
else
System.out.println("i is not present");
}
}
5. Switch Statement:
 In Java, Switch statements are similar to if-else-if statements.

 The switch statement contains multiple blocks of code called cases and a single case is executed based
on the variable which is being switched.

 The switch statement is easier to use instead of if-else-if statements. It also enhances the readability of the
program.

Syntax:
switch (expression)
{
case value1:
statement1;
break;
case value2:
statement2;
break;
.
.
case valueN:
statementN;
break;
default:
statementDefault;
}

/*package whatever //do not write package name here */

import java.io.*;

class GFG {
public static void main (String[] args) {
int num=20;
switch(num){
case 5 : System.out.println("It is 5");
break;
case 10 : System.out.println("It is 10");
break;
case 15 : System.out.println("It is 15");
break;
case 20 : System.out.println("It is 20");
break;
default: System.out.println("Not present");

}
}
}

Output
It is 20
 The expression can be of type byte, short, int char, or an enumeration. Beginning with JDK7,
the expression can also be of type String.
 Duplicate case values are not allowed.
 The default statement is optional.
 The break statement is used inside the switch to terminate a statement sequence.
 The break statements are necessary without the break keyword, statements in switch blocks
fall through.
 If the break keyword is omitted, execution will continue to the next case.

Points to be noted about switch statement:

o The case variables can be int, short, byte, char, or enumeration. String type is also supported since
version 7 of Java
o Cases cannot be duplicate
o Default statement is executed when any of the case doesn't match the value of expression. It is
optional.
o Break statement terminates the switch block when the condition is satisfied.
It is optional, if not used, next case is executed.
o While using switch statements, we must notice that the case expression will be of the same type as
the variable. However, it will also be a constant value.
6. jump:
Jump statements are used to transfer the control of the program to the specific statements.
In other words, jump statements transfer the execution control to the other part of the program.
Java supports three jump statements: break, continue and return.

1. Java break statement

As the name suggests, the break statement is used to break the current flow of the program and transfer the
control to the next statement outside a loop or switch statement. However, it breaks only the inner loop in the case
of the nested loop.

The break statement cannot be used independently in the Java program, i.e., it can only be written inside the loop
or switch statement.

In Java, a break is majorly used for:

o Terminate a sequence in a switch statement (discussed above).
o To exit a loop.
o Used as a “civilized” form of goto.

public class BreakExample {

public static void main(String[] args)

{
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
for(int i = 0; i<= 10; i++)
{
System.out.println(i);
if(i==6)
{
break;
}
}
}
}
Output:

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
2. Java continue statement
Unlike break statement, the continue statement doesn't break the loop, whereas, it skips the specific part of the
loop and jumps to the next iteration of the loop immediately.

// Java program to illustrate using

// continue in an if statement
import java.util.*;

class ContinueDemo {
public static void main(String args[])
{
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
// If the number is even
// skip and continue
if (i % 2 == 0)
continue;

// If number is odd, print it

System.out.print(i + " ");
}
}
}

Output
1 3 5 7 9

3. Return:
The return statement is used to explicitly return from a method. That is, it causes program
control to transfer back to the caller of the method.
// Java program to illustrate using return
import java.util.*;

public class Return {

public static void main(String args[])
{
boolean t = true;
System.out.println("Before the return.");

if (t)
return;

// Compiler will bypass every statement

// after return
System.out.println("This won't execute.");
}
}
Output
Before the return.