Mastering the Symphony of Control Structures: Unleashing the Power of Java's Code Conductors
Tags: java, webdev, tutorial, loop
Published: 2023-05-23 09:56:14

Hello developers!
Understanding Control structures is necessary to write clean code. Today we'll discuss Control structures in Java with examples to help you understand how you can execute a program when a certain condition is met. These are the topics we'll cover:
**1. Conditional branches** - These are normally used to control the flow of execution based on certain conditions. In this article, we'll cover if statement, if-else, else, switch and ternary operator.

**2. Loops **- These are used to iterate over a certain piece of code until a condition is met. It comes in handy when doing a repetitive task. We'll cover, for and while loop.

**3. Branching Statements** - These are used to change the flow of control in loops. There are only two of them in Java: break and continue.

**i. Conditional branches**:

**_if_** - Used to execute a block of code if the specified condition is true.

**_if - else_** - used to execute one block of code if the condition is true, and another block of code if the condition is false.

**_if-else-if-else _**- used when there are multiple conditions to be checked. It allows you to specify multiple conditions and execute different blocks of code based on the evaluation of those conditions.

Here's an example:

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/uzx6z19q1pcxdj6u385i.png)
_These code takes input from the user and checks if there are child, teenager or adult based on the condition set_

_**The ternary operator**_ - also known as the conditional operator, provides a concise way to write simple conditional expressions. It allows you to evaluate a condition and choose between two expressions based on the result of the condition. Here's an _example of code that checks if the user is an adult or an underage_ :
![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/y60t96emjcww10r3pf64.png)



**ii. Loops** - In Java, loops are used to repeatedly execute a block of code until a specific condition is met.

for loop: The for loop is used when you know the number of iterations in advance.

while loop: The while loop is used when the number of iterations is not known beforehand and depends on a condition.

_Below is an example that prints the even and odd numbers from zero up to a hundred_:

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/wlub5bo5xy9elirh8cfz.png)



**iii. Branching Statements** - In Java, branching statements are used to control the flow of execution within loops or conditional blocks. They allow you to alter the normal flow of code execution based on certain conditions.

break: The break statement is used to terminate the innermost loop or switch statement. When encountered, it immediately exits the loop or switch and continues with the next statement after the loop or switch block.

continue: The continue statement is used to skip the current iteration of a loop and proceed to the next iteration. It allows you to bypass certain parts of the loop's code block based on a condition.

_Here's an example for both break and continue that prints the numbers and stops at 20 and prints the number to hundred but skip 20 respectively_:

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/z9uuwg60uqz45ke6msde.png)



**And that's it! **You should now be able to use properly use **control structures** in Java, make your work easier by using loops, conditionally execute code blocks and write cleaner code.

I hope you grasped something from this article. I would greatly appreciate your feedback and suggestions regarding this article. If you notice any errors or have any recommendations for improvement, please feel free to share them below. Your input is invaluable in helping me provide accurate and engaging content.

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