Conditionals & loops

as a manual tester

Your test case says: 'If the user is new, expect the welcome banner; otherwise skip to step 4. Repeat for each browser.'

→

in automation

if/else is the 'if…otherwise'. Loops are the 'repeat for each'. You've been writing control flow in English for years.

if / else — decisions

StatusCheck.java

int statusCode = 404;

if (statusCode == 200) {
    System.out.println("PASS: page loaded");
} else if (statusCode == 404) {
    System.out.println("FAIL: page not found");
} else {
    System.out.println("FAIL: unexpected status " + statusCode);
}

predict: what does this print? think it through, then reveal

output

FAIL: page not found

Conditions are boolean expressions built from comparisons: ==, !=, >, <, >=, <=, combined with && (and), || (or), ! (not). Note == is fine for numbers and booleans — the String rule from last lesson still stands.

Loops — repetition without fatigue

The for-each loop reads almost like your test case's own language:

BrowserLoop.java

String[] browsers = {"chrome", "firefox", "edge"};

for (String browser : browsers) {      // "for each browser in browsers"
    System.out.println("Running smoke test on " + browser);
}

// classic counted loop — when you need the index or a count:
for (int attempt = 1; attempt <= 3; attempt++) {
    System.out.println("Login attempt " + attempt);
}

predict: what does this print? think it through, then reveal

output

Running smoke test on chrome
Running smoke test on firefox
Running smoke test on edge
Login attempt 1
Login attempt 2
Login attempt 3

This is why automation scales: the loop that checks 3 browsers checks 300 data rows with the same four lines. Repetition is free for machines and expensive for humans — loops are where you cash that in.

Flaky-test preview: a while loop repeats until a condition turns false — useful, but a loop waiting for a page that never loads runs forever. Real frameworks use timeouts for exactly this reason; you'll meet WebDriverWait in Suite 04, which is a while-loop-with-a-deadline done right.

⚡ exercise · validate a batch of response codes

Given int[] codes = {200, 200, 404, 200, 500}; write (on paper or in a scratch file) a loop that prints PASS for each 200 and FAIL: <code> otherwise, then prints the total number of failures at the end.

show a solution

int[] codes = {200, 200, 404, 200, 500};
int failures = 0;
for (int code : codes) {
    if (code == 200) {
        System.out.println("PASS");
    } else {
        System.out.println("FAIL: " + code);
        failures++;
    }
}
System.out.println("Total failures: " + failures);

references

Oracle Java Tutorials — control flow statements

key takeaways

if / else if / else encodes the decisions your test cases already describe.
for-each loops repeat a check across data or browsers at zero human cost.
Unbounded while-loops are how tests hang — frameworks fix this with timed waits.