In the previous chapters, you created scripts that performed each line once and only once. When JAWS performs your scripts in this manner, each statement is performed regardless of any situations that may arise during the execution of the script. This manner of performing your scripts is called sequential flow control.
This is the most basic way in which JAWS performs your scripts. JAWS performs each statement sequentially beginning with the first statement in your script and continuing to the EndScript statement. You can think of a script that flows sequentially as a script that JAWS performs step-by-step.
In addition to creating scripts that JAWS performs sequentially, you can add statements to your scripts that perform an evaluation. This type of flow control is called branching, conditional, or decision-making.
You may find that at some point during the execution of your script, the script must evaluate certain conditions before continuing. The conditions your script evaluates can be anything from the value contained within a variable to the return value from a function. Once your script completes the evaluation, the statements that are processed next are based on the outcome of the evaluation. When the outcome of the evaluation is true, processing may continue down one branch. If the outcome is found to be false, a second branch of statements is performed.
For example, suppose you come to a group of two doors at the end of a hallway. Before you continue, you must evaluate which door to go through. Your decision will be based on a set of conditions. If it is dark outside, you might choose one door but if it is light out, you might choose another.
Your script may need to do that same type of decision making. You use the If-Then-Else statement structure to make a decision. When your script comes to the If-Then-Else statement a condition is evaluated. Based on the outcome of the evaluation, your script may perform one branch of code as opposed to another.
In this chapter, you will learn how to create basic If statements to make decisions in your scripts. You will learn the structure of the If statement and the uses of the Else and ElIf key words. You will also learn how to create more complex If statements that use compound evaluations as well as nesting If statements inside one another. You will also learn how to create a loop that executes a section of code multiple times.
Chapter 9.0 Controlling the Flow of Scripts with Decision Making, contains the following sections:
9.3 Adding a Second Branch, the Else Keyword
9.4 Adding Multiple Branches, the ElIf Statement