does python allows elif statement without else statement?

Question

While teaching python to a friend i tried this statement :

val = "hi"
if (val=="hello") or ("w" in val):
    print("hello")    
elif(val=="hi"):
    print("hi")  

And to my great surprise it worked. I always tought in Python you couldn't do an elif without else. Has it been always like that or the syntax has changed since a particular version?

Answer 1

else is optional, and follows any number of elif statements.

From the specification of version 1.6:

if_stmt:        "if" expression ":" suite
               ("elif" expression ":" suite)*
               ["else" ":" suite]

The * in this syntax means zero or more elements, and [ and ] means an optional element.

Python 1.6 was the first version released as open source. That said, I'm almost certain it has always been like that, because it is standard among most, if not all, programming languages.