What is a conditional (overview)?

Sometimes we need our Maple code to decide what to compute based on the value of an expression.
Such conditionals (decision-making) are achieved by an IF-THEN-ELSE-FI statement:

if test_expression then value_if_true else value_if_false fi

The test_expression is evaluated. If that value is true, then the value of the entire " if " is the value of the value_if_true expression, otherwise it is the value of value_if_false . The final fi ("if" spelled backwards) signals Maple that we've reached the end of the if statement. Note that test_expression, value_if_true and value_if_false are not actual things that you type in; they stand for arbitrary Maple expressions.