In Perl, if-then-else statements are used to control the flow of your program based on conditions—like giving your code decision-making powers 🧠⚡

🧪 Basic Syntax

if (condition) {
    # Code runs if condition is true
} else {
    # Code runs if condition is false
}

• condition: Any expression that evaluates to true or false
• Perl treats 0, '0', undef, and empty strings as false; everything else is true

🔍 Example

my $age = 20;

if ($age >= 18) {
    print "You're an adult.\n";
} else {
    print "You're a minor.\n";
}

• If $age is 18 or more, it prints “You’re an adult.”
• Otherwise, it prints “You’re a minor.”

🔁 elsif for Multiple Conditions

my $score = 85;

if ($score >= 90) {
    print "Grade: A\n";
} elsif ($score >= 80) {
    print "Grade: B\n";
} else {
    print "Grade: C or below\n";
}

• elsif lets you check additional conditions
• You can chain multiple elsif blocks before the final else

🧠 Tips

• Always use curly braces {} even for single-line blocks—it’s good practice and avoids bugs
• Indentation isn’t required by Perl, but it makes your code easier to read
• You can nest if statements inside each other for more complex logic