And what you learn after a few years in the real world is that, when school tells you "this is the right way", they're almost always wrong. Or, there at least almost always wrong in many circumstances. The real world is a lot more complicated than they teach you in school, and the correct answer is almost always "it depends".
Should you avoid if-statements? It depends. What are you going to have to do instead? You're going to have to do something. Is that something going to be more understandable for your co-workers for the lifetime of the code? Maybe, depending on your co-workers. Maintainability over the lifetime of the code far outweighs and "should" that they tell you at school.
Should you avoid if-statements? It depends. What are you going to have to do instead? You're going to have to do something. Is that something going to be more understandable for your co-workers for the lifetime of the code? Maybe, depending on your co-workers. Maintainability over the lifetime of the code far outweighs and "should" that they tell you at school.