Control Flow in Python

Introduction

Control flow in Python refers to the order in which individual statements, instructions, or function calls are executed or evaluated. The control flow can be altered using conditional statements, loops, and exception handling.

Conditionals

Conditional statements allow you to execute certain pieces of code based on specific conditions.

1. if Statement

if condition:
    # code to execute if condition is true

2. if-else Statement

if condition:
    # code to execute if condition is true
else:
    # code to execute if condition is false

3. if-elif-else Statement

if condition1:
    # code for condition1
elif condition2:
    # code for condition2
else:
    # code if none of the conditions are true

Loops

Loops allow you to execute a block of code repeatedly.

1. for Loop

for item in iterable:
    # code to execute for each item

2. while Loop

while condition:
    # code to execute while condition is true

3. break and continue Statements

The break statement terminates the loop, while the continue statement skips the current iteration and moves to the next one.

for item in iterable:
    if condition:
        break  # exits the loop
    if another_condition:
        continue  # skips to the next iteration

Exceptions

Exceptions are used for error handling in Python. You can catch and handle exceptions using try and except.

try:
    # code that may cause an exception
except ExceptionType:
    # code to handle the exception

Best Practices

• Use clear and descriptive condition names.
• Avoid deeply nested conditionals.
• Keep loops simple and avoid excessive iterations.
• Handle exceptions gracefully and provide informative error messages.