Branching (the if statement)

This lesson covers how to write an if statement in Perl.

if / elsif / else branches on a condition. Note that unlike the else if of most other languages, Perl writes it as a single word: elsif.

The sample code uses if / elsif / else to print one of three messages depending on $score.

A common early stumble is spelling elsif. Writing it as two words, or as "elseif", is an error — Perl's own spelling is worth committing to memory.

In professional work, if statements come up constantly for branching on the contents of a log line.

📖 Reference code

my $score = 85;
if ($score >= 80) {
    print "Great job!\n";
} elsif ($score >= 60) {
    print "You passed\n";
} else {
    print "Try again\n";
}

✍️ Your code

Type your code, then press "Run"

🧪 This site can't compile or run Perl 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).