# What is an if statement?

A computer program often requires a *decision* or a *branch* within a code to account for how the code operates under different inputs or conditions.

Within the Python programming language, the simplest and sometimes the most useful way of creating a branch within your program is through an `if` statement.


# Syntax

The syntax for writing an `if` statement is as follows:

# Code

Let's take a look at an example implementing an `if` statement:

#creating variables "a" and "b"
a = 500
b = 200

#if condition to check whether "a" is greater than "b"
if(a > b):
  print "a is greater than b"  

The illustration below explains the code above.

How to execute an If statement in Python

Creating a branch in Python using an if statement allows programs to handle different inputs or conditions efficiently.