The <else>, <elseif>, and <elseifnot> Tags

The <else>, <elseif>, and <elseifnot> tags aid in the creation of more involved conditional logic than a single <if> or <ifnot> statement.

The <else> tag marks a region to be displayed only if the last logical evaluation (at the same logical depth , if working with nested logic tags) was false. If the last logical evaluation was true, the <else> region will be muted.

Example 13-17 creates a simple <if> condition to check for the existence of a variable called answer. If it is not found, the region marked up by the <else> and </else> tags will be displayed; otherwise, that region will be muted.

<lxp>
  <if answer>
    Thank you for supplying an answer.
  </if>
  <else>
    You have not yet supplied an answer.<br />
    <include src="forms/question.lxp" />
  </else>
</lxp>

As mentioned earlier in this section, the <elseif> and <elseifnot> tags are just shortcuts. They behave exactly as the <if> and <ifnot> tags do, respectively, if they were nested within an <else> region. For example, the following two blocks of markup are functionally identical:

  <if condition1="true">
    Condition 1 is True.
  </if>
  <else>
    <if condition2="true">
      Condition 2 is true.
    </if>
  </else>

...
  
  <if condition1="true">
    Condition 1 is True.
  </if>
  <elseif condition2="true">
    Condition 2 is true.
  </elseif>

Using <else> tags streamlines both the maintainability and efficiency of the conditional logic. By using <else>, you can rely on LXP to keep track of whether or not the last condition was or was not met, and not have to re-evaluate the same conditions with the opposite logic tag.

Example 13-18 re-implements the same logic that was used in Example 13-15 earlier in this section, but improves it with the use of the <else> tag.

<lxp>
  <if answer>
    <strong>You have supplied an answer!</strong><br />
    
    <if answer="12">
      Your answer is correct!<br />
      <if cheatcode>
        You appear to be cheating, however.
      </if>
      <else>
        Congratulations for not cheating!
      </else>
    </if>
    <else>
      Your answer of <putvar name="answer">, though, is incorrect.<br />
    </else>
  
  </if>
  <else>
    You have not yet supplied an answer.<br />
    <include src="forms/question.lxp" />
  </else>
</lxp>