Julia Language Conditionals if...else expression
Example
The most common conditional in Julia is the if...else expression. For instance, below we implement the Euclidean algorithm for computing the greatest common divisor, using a conditional to handle the base case:
mygcd(a, b) = if a == 0
abs(b)
else
mygcd(b % a, a)
end
The if...else form in Julia is actually an expression, and has a value; the value is the expression in tail position (that is, the last expression) on the branch that is taken. Consider the following sample input:
julia> mygcd(0, -10)
10
Here, a is 0 and b is -10. The condition a == 0 is true, so the first branch is taken. The returned value is abs(b) which is 10.
julia> mygcd(2, 3)
1
Here, a is 2 and b is 3. The condition a == 0 is false, so the second branch is taken, and we compute mygcd(b % a, a), which is mygcd(3 % 2, 2). The % operator returns the remainder when 3 is divided by 2, in this case 1. Thus we compute mygcd(1, 2), and this time a is 1 and b is 2. Once again, a == 0 is false, so the second branch is taken, and we compute mygcd(b % a, a), which is mygcd(0, 1). This time, a == 0 at last and so abs(b) is returned, which gives the result 1.
