Which of the following best describes the term 'conditional statement'?

A conditional statement is a fundamental concept in programming that allows for decision-making within code. It executes specific instructions based on whether a certain condition evaluates to true or false. This means that the flow of the program can change dynamically based on the conditions evaluated at runtime.

For example, in programming, a conditional statement might look like this:

if temperature > 100:

print("It's hot!")

else:

print("It's not hot.")

In this example, the code that follows the 'if' keyword is executed only if the condition (temperature > 100) is true, resulting in the output "It's hot!" If the condition is false, the code under 'else' runs instead.

The other options do not accurately describe what a conditional statement does. Statements that repeat tasks, such as loops, are structured to execute code multiple times rather than conditionally. Statements defining data structures refer to how data is organized and stored, while statements for setting user permissions deal with access rights in a system, none of which involve the conditional logic inherent in a conditional statement.