Conditional statement is a fundamental programming concept that allows code execution to branch based on whether a specific condition evaluates to true or false. It's like an if-then statement in real life - if it's raining, then bring an umbrella, else leave it at home.

How to use it in a sentence

• I was debugging this legacy enterprise Java codebase, and I swear, trying to trace the logic through all these nested conditional statements was like navigating a maze designed by a sadistic computer science professor.

• Oh, you're having trouble understanding why your code keeps crashing? Let me guess, you probably forgot to handle an edge case in one of your conditional statements. Better bust out the ol' debugger and start stepping through that spaghetti logic!

If you actually want to learn more...

• Refactoring to an Adaptive Model - In this article, Martin Fowler shows how refactoring imperative conditional statements into a production rule system can make your code more adaptable and easier to reason about. Who knew the guy who literally wrote the book on refactoring would have some insights?

• Stop AbUsing the Mann-Whitney U Test (MWU) - Okay, this one's not directly related to conditional statements, but if you're into A/B testing and statistical analysis, understanding when and how to properly use tests like the Mann-Whitney U is crucial. Plus, the title's clever wordplay is a nice bonus.

• Costanza's Lisp Guide - For those of you who like to kick it old school with Lisp, this guide has some great examples of how to use conditional statements in the granddaddy of functional programming languages. Just don't forget your parentheses!

Note: the Developer Dictionary is in Beta. Please direct feedback to skye@statsig.com.