How should one comment an if-else structure? [duplicate]

Question

If it is needed to comment if else statements, I prefer to describe the case what made the code reach that point. Especially in code with a high cyclomatic complexity

if (condition) { 
// User is taking a course at college x:
    i = 1;
} else { 
// User is not taking any course at college x:
    i = 2;
}

Another option is:

if(condition) { //check for condition
    i = 1;
} else { //condition isn't met
    i = 2;
}

You should only only annotate if the code is not self explanatory. So make the if self explanatory. Like this perhaps

bool fooIsNotReallyGood = ....;

if(fooIsNotReallyGood) {
...
} else {
...
}

If the code is not already self-documenting, then I would structure it as follows:

if (someCondition) {
    // If some condition, then do stuff 1.
    doStuff1();
}
else {
    // Else do stuff 2.
    doStuff2();
}

But again, it doesn't make much sense if the code is already self-documenting. If you would like to add comments because of some complex condition like:

if (x == null || x.startsWith("foo") || x.endsWith("bar") || x.equals("baz")) {
    doStuff1();
}
else {
    doStuff2();
}

Then I would consider to refactor it as:

boolean someCondition = (x == null || x.startsWith("foo") || x.endsWith("baz") || x.equals("waa");

if (someCondition) {
    doStuff1();
} else {
    doStuff2();
}

Wherein the variable name someCondition actually summarizes the whole condition in a nutshell. E.g. usernameIsValid, userIsAllowedToLogin or so.

Go for self-commenting conditions,then additional comments aren't necessary. Let's say the condition is that the maximum loan to value is reached. This gives us:

if (maximumLoanToValueIsReached)
{
   i=1;
}
else
{
   i=2;
}

No need to specify when i=2 that the maximum loan to value hasn't been reached as that is self explanitory. As an aside, I'd also rename i to something more meaningful.