Dangling "else" Resolution in T-SQL - sql

Question

So I've been tasked with converting some T-SQL code to C code. Whoever wrote the code I'm converting indulged in little to no code etiquette. I know this because of the complete lack of commenting, lack of indentation, and lack of begin/end blocks except where absolutely syntactically necessary (and a few thrown in arbitrarily for good measure).
This raises a few problems. The code I'm converting is based on the Metaphone algorithm. I say "based on" because it has quite a few... "undocumented improvements" that make it differ from the official implementation. Because of this, I can't just go grab some Metaphone implementation, because then it wouldn't actually be a "correct" translation.
So here's the root of the issue(s):
if #str1='d'
if substring(#str,#cnt,3) in ('dge','dgy','dgi')
set #Result=#Result + 'j'
else
set #Result=#Result + 't'
Because of how Metaphone works, I'm pretty sure they meant:
if #str1='d'
if substring(#str,#cnt,3) in ('dge','dgy','dgi')
set #Result=#Result + 'j'
else
set #Result=#Result + 't'
But I'm not sure if it's actually being interpreted as:
if #str1='d'
if substring(#str,#cnt,3) in ('dge','dgy','dgi')
set #Result=#Result + 'j'
else
set #Result=#Result + 't'
This little snippet isn't too big of a deal, but just after it, there's a section with five "if" statements and only one "else" statement and with no begin/end blocks to explicitly arrange them. None of this would be a big deal if I could actually run the code to to test and see, but sadly, I don't have an environment to test it and nor do I have any output from previous usage of the code.
tl;dr: Do any of you T-SQL gurus out there know which of the above two statements it'll be interpreted as and what's the rule of them with shift/reduce conflicts in T-SQL? (Attach to first "if" statement, attach to last "if" statement, pick one at random?)
EDIT: Here's another fun one a few lines down.
if #str1='t'
if substring(#str,#cnt,3) in ('tia','tio')
set #Result=#Result + 'x'
else
if #str2='th'
set #Result=#Result + '0'
else
if substring(#str,#cnt,3) <> 'tch'
set #Result=#Result + 't'
EDIT2: Ok, if I'm reading these answers correctly, that means the above is actually
if #str1='t'
if substring(#str,#cnt,3) in ('tia','tio')
set #Result=#Result + 'x'
else
if #str2='th'
set #Result=#Result + '0'
else
if substring(#str,#cnt,3) <> 'tch'
set #Result=#Result + 't'

Answer 1

Here is something that should help you out
DECLARE #testvar INT;
DECLARE #testvar2 INT;
SET #testvar = 1;
SET #testvar2 = 1;
IF #testvar = 1
IF #testvar2 = 1
SELECT 'Got to 1';
ELSE
SELECT 'Got to 2';
If testvar and testvar2 are both 1, it outputs "Got to 1".
If testvar=1 and testvar2=2, it outputs "Got to 2".
If testvar=2, there is no output. So the else is getting paired off against the nearest if

Answer 2

Your assumption is correct.
IF () IF () X ELSE Y is equivilent to IF () BEGIN IF () X ELSE Y END
The ELSE keyword looks back to the most recent IF statement in the same scope. So to get what you think was intended, you need to add BEGIN and END statements...
IF (#str1='d')
BEGIN
IF (substring(#str,#cnt,3) in ('dge','dgy','dgi'))
SET #Result=#Result + 'j'
END
ELSE
SET #Result=#Result + 't'