File: groff.info,  Node: if-else,  Next: while,  Prev: Operators in Conditionals,  Up: Conditionals and Loops

5.23.3 if-else
--------------

 -- Request: .ie cond-expr anything
 -- Request: .el anything
     Use the 'ie' and 'el' requests to write an if-then-else.  The first
     request is the "if" part and the latter is the "else" part.
     Unusually among programming languages, any number of
     non-conditional requests may be interposed between the 'ie' branch
     and the 'el' branch.

          .nr a 0
          .ie \na a is non-zero.
          .nr a +1
          .el a was not positive but is now \na.
              => a was not positive but is now 1.

     Another way in which 'el' is an ordinary request is that it does
     not lexically "bind" more tightly to its 'ie' counterpart than it
     does to any other request.  This fact can surprise C programmers.

          .nr a 1
          .nr z 0
          .ie \nz \
          .  ie \na a is true
          .  el     a is false
          .el z is false
              error-> warning: unbalanced 'el' request
              => a is false

     To conveniently nest conditionals, keep reading.