Lua Academy · Lesson

if, elseif and else Statements

Write conditional branching logic with Lua's if/elseif/else syntax.

Basic if Statement

The if statement evaluates a condition and executes its block when the condition is truthy. In Lua, only false and nil are falsy; everything else — including 0 and "" — is truthy. End the block with end.

local score = 85

if score >= 90 then
  print("A grade")
end

if score >= 60 then
  print("Passing")   -- prints
end

if 0 then
  print("0 is truthy!")  -- prints in Lua
end

if/elseif/else

Chain multiple conditions with elseif and provide a fallback with else. Lua evaluates conditions top to bottom and executes only the first matching branch. Unlike switch/case in other languages, Lua's elseif is a single keyword (not else if).

local score = 75

if score >= 90 then
  print("A")
elseif score >= 80 then
  print("B")
elseif score >= 70 then
  print("C")   -- prints
elseif score >= 60 then
  print("D")
else
  print("F")
end

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