Conditionals (if statements)

This lesson covers writing if statements in C++. It's for anyone searching "C++ if statement syntax."

if / else if / else branches your logic based on a condition. The syntax is very similar to C or Java — different code runs depending on the condition.

The example uses if / else if / else to display one of three messages depending on the value of score. Comparisons use operators like >=, <, and ==.

A common early mistake is losing track of which {} pairs with which condition. As conditions pile up and nesting gets deeper, it becomes hard to tell which brace belongs to which block, so keeping your indentation consistent matters.

In real projects, the if statement is the most fundamental control structure, and it's the foundation of branching logic in essentially every program.

📖 Reference code

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    int score = 85;
    if (score >= 80) {
        std::cout << "Great job!" << std::endl;
    } else if (score >= 60) {
        std::cout << "You passed" << std::endl;
    } else {
        std::cout << "Try again next time" << std::endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

✍️ Your code

Type your code, then press "Run"

🧪 This site can't compile or run C++ directly, so it checks on the spot whether what you typed matches the reference code (scoring happens entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere).