The selection statement causes the statement sequence in the selected branch (if any) to execute.

The construct elif conditional expression then statement sequence can be repeated any number of times. The keyword elif stands for else if.

The statement sequence following else is executed if all of the preceding conditional expressions evaluate to false or FAIL.

This statement has special evaluation rules in that the arguments are not evaluated if they are not required.

The end if that terminates a selection statement can be shortened to just end, or the ALGOL-like fi, if desired.

A conditional expression is any Boolean expression formed by using the relational operators ( <, <=, >, >=, =, <> ), the logical operators (and, or, not), and the logical names (true, false, FAIL).

When a conditional expression is evaluated in this context, it must evaluate to true or false or FAIL; otherwise, an error occurs.

Statements in a Maple session are recognized in levels, determined by the nesting of selection or repetition statements and the nesting of procedures. In particular, the top (interactive) level is level $0$; statements within selection and repetition statements are level $1$, or level $2$ if doubly nested, etc.

The setting of printlevel causes the display of the results of all statements executed up to the level indicated by printlevel. By default, printlevel is initially set to $1$. As a result, if statements are located inside nested loops or nested selection statements, it may be necessary to set printlevel to a higher value in order to see the results of all the statements located in the loops or selection statements.

An alternative method of displaying the result of a statement that is nested inside repetition or selection statements is to use the statement in conjunction with the print command.

For more information about displaying information, see printlevel and print. For a definition, see if.

The ifelse function allows a selection to be computed as, or within, an expression. However, this is limited to two branches, and each branch can consist of only an expression.

An actual selection statement can also be used as an expression or subexpression. Unlike the aforementioned ifelse function, an embedded selection statement can have more than two branches, and each branch can consist of multiple statements.

The value of such an embedded selection statement is the value of the last expression computed within the branch that was executed.

Note: Selection statements embedded within expressions are currently not supported in 2-D input in the Standard interface.

The if statement and operator is thread-safe as of Maple 15.

For more information on thread safety, see index/threadsafe.