Does an else if statement exist?

Question

Some time ago after not standing anymore lines like this:

if (arg)
    invk(test);
else if (test)
{
    alot();
    stuff();
}

I decided fo

Answer 1

As every one is aware, there is several different styles of programming languages. The presence of a elseif is based on the style of language. In a C/Pascal style the if statement is

if (...)
   statment; 
else
   statement;

and you have a compound statement: { statment; statment; }

while in a Modula2 / VB / (python ?) style language you have

if (...)
   statement;
   ...
   statement;
else
   statement;
   ...
   statement;
end-if

in the Modula2 / VB you need a elseif statement because if you tried using else if you get

if (..)
else if (..)
else if (..)
end-if; end-if; end-if;

The end-if's at the end are rather ugly.

As @anatolyg noted this is why you have a #elif in C macro language.

---

Cobol-85 has a different take on the elseif statement. It provides an extended Select/case statement. In Cobol you have an evaluate:

evaluate option
   when 1
      ...
   when 2
      ...

but you can also do

evaluate true
   when age > 21 and gender = 'male'
      ...
   when age > 21 and gender = 'female'

In Cobol you can also mix the case and if structure

evaluate option also true
   when 1 also age > 21 and gender = 'male'
      .... 
   when 1 also age > 21 and gender = 'female'
      .... 
   when 2 also any
      ....

---

One final point in java and C you sometimes see

if () {

} else if () {

} else if () {

}

To all intents and purposes, this is VB / Modula-2 written in Java/C.