Is the "if" statement considered a method?

Question

Interesting discussion came up among my peers as to whether or not the "if" statement is considered a method? Although "if" is appended with the word statement it still behaves similar to a simple non-return value method.

For example:

if(myValue) //myValue is the parameter passed in {     //Execute } 

Likewise a method could perform the same operation:

public void MyMethod(myValue) {     switch(myValue)     {         case true:             //Logic             break;         case false:             //Logic             break;     } } 

Is it accurate to call (consider) the "if" statement a simple predefined method in a programming language?

Answer 1

In languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, IF is a statement implemented as a reserved word, part of the core of the language. In programming languages of the LISP family (Scheme comes to mind) IF is an expression (meaning that it returns a value) and is implemented as a special form. On the other hand, in pure object-oriented languages such as Smalltalk, IF really is a method (more precisely: a message), typically implemented on the Boolean class or one of its subclasses.

Bottom line: the true nature of the conditional instruction IF depends on the programming language, and on the programming paradigm of that language.