Help with Arduino program

Im kind of confused about the counter. I have some knowledge of programming but could i make it an if,else statement where IF the button is pressed, it does mode 2 and if it isnt pressed then do mode 1? Sorry if that didnt make sense but im not that familiard with C functions. And i was planning on getting an Arduino Uno r3 because ive seen a lot of projects using it and it seems like a good place to start. Thanks