Visual Basic: If and Else Statements

If and else statements are the simplest way of checking if statements are true or otherwise; they are extremely useful when used in conjunction with logical and conditional operators (which are explained in the next lesson).

If statements work like so:

If   CONDITION   Then

'do some stuff

End If

A simple if statement that checks the value of something would look like this:

If var1 = 900 Then
MsgBox("Var1 equals 900!")
End If

The "=" is a conditional operator, you will learn more about these in a few lessons as they are extremely useful with if statements.

Else statements

Else statements are always used with if statements as their contents are executed if the if statements (and/or else if statements) all fail. This is an example of a simple else statement:

If var1 = 900 Then
            MsgBox("var1 = 900!")
Else
            MsgBox("Im in an else statement")
End If

Elseif statements

Else if statements are always used with if statements (and usually else statements too); As you may have guessed if the if statements is false then it checks the elseif, if the elseif is true it will execute that; however if the elseif is false it will move onto the next statement (or end depending when the if ends). Here is what a simple chain of if, elseif and else statements look like:

If  CONDITION Then
'Do stuff
ElseIf CONDITION Then
'do different stuff
ElseIf CONDITION Then
'do different stuff

Else
'Do different stuff
End If

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