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Rahul Banerjee
Rahul Banerjee

Posted on • Originally published at realpythonproject.com

#Day29 - From Python to JavaScript - The Basics Part 2

In yesterday's article, we discussed the following

  • Why you should learn JavaScript
  • How to Run JavaScript/Python and show output
  • Variables
  • Comments

Today, we will talk about the following

  • Conditional Statements
  • Blocks
  • Comparison Operators
  • Logical Operators
  • Truthy and Falsy Values
  • Ternary Operators
  • Switch Cases

Conditional Statements

Python

Python supports the following

  • if statements
  • else statements
  • elif statements Below is an example
num = 10

if num > 20:
  print("If statement")
elif num > 10:
  print("Elif statement")
else:
  print("Else statement")
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Let's try writing the same code snippet in JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript supports the following

  • if statements
  • else statements
  • else if statements - else if statements in JavaScript are similar to elif statements in Python

Unlike Python, in JavaScript, the conditions must be in parenthesis

let num  = 10

if (num > 20)
  console.log("If Statement")
else if (num > 10)
  console.log("Elif Statement")
else
  console.log("Else Statement")
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Blocks

What if we want multiple statements inside if...else blocks?

Python

In Python, we use the colon operator and indentation to declare blocks

num = 10

if num > 20:
  print("If statement 1")
  print("If statement 2")
else:
  print("Else statement 1")
  print("Else statement 2")
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JavaScript

In JavaScript, Indentation is not mandatory. It is just good practice to make your code more readable. We use { } to declare blocks

let num  = 10

if (num > 20){
  console.log("If Statement 1")
  console.log("If Statement 2")
}
else{
  console.log("Else Statement 1")
  console.log("Else Statement 2")
}

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Comparison Operators

Python

Python has the following comparison operators

< , <=
> , >=
==, != 
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JavaScript

JavaScript has all of the above operators along with a couple of additional operators

===
!==
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So what's the difference between ==,!= and === and !== in JavaScript?

The == and the != only compare the value irrespective of their type. Consider the following code snippet

if (10 == "10")
  console.log("If statement is True")
else
  console.log("Else statement is True")

/*
OUTPUT
If statement is True
*/
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The if condition is actually true when using the == operator. Although the data types are different, the values are the same.

In Python 10 == "10" is False. Python compares both the value and the type.

The following also evaluate to True in JavaScript

1 == [1]
'1' == [1]
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On the other hand, the === and !== operators compare both the value and the data type. So basically === and !== in JavaScript is similar to == and != in Python

if (  10 === "10")
  console.log("If statement is True")
else
  console.log("Else statement is True")

/*
OUTPUT
Else statement is True
*/
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Python doesn't have support for any operator which works the way == works in JavaScript. To achieve similar functionality, we could use typecasting and convert both sides of the condition to the same type

if str(10) == "10":
  print("If Statement is True")
else:
  print("Else Statement is True")

'''
OUTPUT
If Statement is True
'''
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Logical Operators

Python

In python, we can use the following operators to combine expressions

  • and
  • or
  • not
var1 = True
var2 = False
var3 = True
var4 = True

if var1 and var2 or var3 and not var4:
  print("It evaluates to True")
else:
  print("It evaluates to False")
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JavaScript

JavaScript has the following logical operators

  • && - and operator in Python
  • || - or in operator Python
  • ! - not operator in Python
let var1 = true
let var2 = false
let var3 = true
let var4 = true

if (var1 && var2 || var3 && !var4)
  console.log("It evaluates to True")
else
  console.log("It evaluates to False")
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Truthy and Falsy Values

Truthy and Falsy values are values, not restricted to boolean values, that evaluates to either True or False

Python

In Python, the following evaluate to False

  • Empty String - "" or ''
  • None
  • empty iterable
  • 0
  • 0.0
  • False

JavaScript

In JavaScript, the following evaluate to False

  • Empty String - "" or ''
  • null
  • undefined
  • NaN
  • 0
  • 0.0
  • false

In JavaScript, empty arrays(lists) [] and empty objects {} are truthy values, i.e. they evaluate to True.

Ternary Operators

Python

num = 10
num_type = "Even" if num%2 ==0 else "Odd"
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JavaScript

In javascript, use the following syntax for ternary operators

let variableName = condition ? trueCase : falseCase
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If we wanted to write the python code snippet with ternary operators in JavaScript

let num = 10
let num_type = num%2 ? "Even" : "Odd"
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Switch Cases

Python

Switch Cases was not supported till Python 3.10. Unfortunately, a stable version of Python 3.10 is not available as of today.

JavaScript

Below is the general syntax for switch-case statements in JavaScript

switch (expression){
   case value1:
      // code
     break
   case value2:
     // code
    break
  .
  .
  .
  .
  default:
   // code
}
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  • If the value of the variable matches any of the cases, the specific case bloc is executed
  • Remember to include a break statement in each case block, otherwise, even if a case is matched, the following cases will also be executed.
  • The default block is like a wildcard, i.e if None of the cases are matched, the default block is executed

Below is the switch case in action

let cost = 10

switch (cost){
  case 5:
  console.log("It is greater than 5")
  case 8:
  console.log("It is greater than 8")
  case 10:
  console.log("It is greater than 10")
  default:
  console.log("Default")
}

/*
OUTPUT
It is greater than 10
Default
*/
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We did not use break statements, as a result, both the last case along with the default block was executed.

let cost = 10

switch (cost){
  case 5:
  console.log("It is greater than 5")
  break
  case 8:
  console.log("It is greater than 8")
  break
  case 10:
  console.log("It is greater than 10")
  break
  default:
  console.log("Default")
}

/*
OUTPUT
It is greater than 10
*/
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Since we have break statements in place in the above code-snippet, only the last case block was executed.

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