if — Expert Playground

Starts a conditional statement; executes block only if condition is true

Python Playground

import dis

def classify(x):
    if x > 0:
        return "positive"
    elif x == 0:
        return "zero"
    else:
        return "negative"

dis.dis(classify)

# The bytecode shows:
# - COMPARE_OP for the condition
# - POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE to skip the block
# - Each elif is a separate compare+jump
print(f"\nCode object constants: {classify.__code__.co_consts}")

Output

Click "Run" to execute your code

if/elif/else compiles to a chain of compare + conditional jump instructions. There is no jump table optimization — each condition is tested sequentially.

Challenge

Try modifying the code above to explore different behaviors. Can you extend the example to handle a new use case?

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