Which programming construct is used to repeat a block of code when the number of iterations is known in advance while O for O switch?

When designing programs, there may be some instructions that need repeating. This is known as iteration, and is implemented in programming using FOR and WHILE statements.

Índice Show

Why While Loops?
Example 1: How to assure proper input
The “while” loop
The “do…while” loop
The “for” loop
Skipping parts
Breaking the loop
Continue to the next iteration
Labels for break/continue

If you want to start programming, I must admit that the outlook is not good: different operating systems, so many programming languages, and endless ways of reaching the same results. These are the type of situations that will make you either run away (as fast and as far as you can, hoping you’ll never bump into programming again), or face the beast…

The while loop is used to repeat a section of code an unknown number of times until a specific condition is met. For example, say we want to know how many times a given number can be divided by 2 before it is less than or equal to 1. If we know a specific number, such as 32, we can say 5 times, but for a given symbolic variable "NUMBER" which represents any number in the world, how many times is not known a priori (before hand). In this case, we could use a while loop to determine that answer:

The "pseudocode" for such an algorithm is: while the number is bigger than one keep dividing it by two. additionally, keep a count of how many times we do the division.

get our number set our initial count to 0 while our number is greater than 1 divide the number by 2 increase our count by 1 end

count = 0; while (number > 1) number = number / 2; % must "move" toward end of loop count = count + 1; end

int count = 0; while (number > 1) { number = number / 2; count++; // the same as count = count + 1; }

var count:int = 0; while (number > 1) { number = number / 2; count++; // the same as count = count + 1; }

Why While Loops?

Like all loops, "while loops" execute blocks of code over and over again.
The advantage to a while loop is that it will go (repeat) as often as necessary to accomplish its goal.
Generic Syntax:
while ( condition is true ) do something % Note: the "something" should eventually result % in the condition being false end
Infinite loops:

If the action inside the loop does not modify the variables being tested in the loops condition, the loop will "run" forever. For example:
while ( y < 10 ) x = x + 1; end while ( true ) printf('hello'); end

Example 1: How to assure proper input

Ask the user to input a value.
while the input is incorrect.
ask the user to input another value.
go back to line 2 (the while)

% MATLAB % % Using a while loop to ask the user to input a number % between 1 and 10 (inclusive). % % Variables: % value : variable to store the input % value = input ('Please Enter a Number between 1 and 10 (1-10)'); while ( value < 1 || value > 10) fprintf('Incorrect input, please try again.\n'); value = input ('Enter a Number between 1 and 10 (1-10)'); end % while

/* * C * Using a while loop to ask the user to input a number * between 1 and 10 (inclusive). * * Variables: * value : variable to store the input */ printf("Please Enter a Number between 1 and 10 (1-10): "); scanf("%d", &value); while ( value < 1 || value > 10) { printf("Incorrect input, please try again.\n"); printf("Enter a Number between 1 and 10 (1-10): "); scanf("%d", &value); }

A design pattern is the syntax that you have to memorize in order to do well in programming and on tests.

The design pattern for a while loop is:

while ( some condition is true ) % Do this code % Something here should modify the condition above end

while ( some condition is true ) { // Do this code // Something here should modify the condition above }

Back to Topics List

We often need to repeat actions.

For example, outputting goods from a list one after another or just running the same code for each number from 1 to 10.

Loops are a way to repeat the same code multiple times.

A small announcement for advanced readers.

This article covers only basic loops: while, do..while and for(..;..;..).

If you came to this article searching for other types of loops, here are the pointers:

See for…in to loop over object properties.
See for…of and iterables for looping over arrays and iterable objects.

Otherwise, please read on.

The “while” loop

The while loop has the following syntax:

while (condition) { // code // so-called "loop body" }

While the condition is truthy, the code from the loop body is executed.

For instance, the loop below outputs i while i < 3:

let i = 0; while (i < 3) { // shows 0, then 1, then 2 alert( i ); i++; }

A single execution of the loop body is called an iteration. The loop in the example above makes three iterations.

If i++ was missing from the example above, the loop would repeat (in theory) forever. In practice, the browser provides ways to stop such loops, and in server-side JavaScript, we can kill the process.

Any expression or variable can be a loop condition, not just comparisons: the condition is evaluated and converted to a boolean by while.

For instance, a shorter way to write while (i != 0) is while (i):

let i = 3; while (i) { // when i becomes 0, the condition becomes falsy, and the loop stops alert( i ); i--; }

If the loop body has a single statement, we can omit the curly braces {…}:

let i = 3; while (i) alert(i--);

The “do…while” loop

The condition check can be moved below the loop body using the do..while syntax:

do { // loop body } while (condition);

The loop will first execute the body, then check the condition, and, while it’s truthy, execute it again and again.

For example:

let i = 0; do { alert( i ); i++; } while (i < 3);

This form of syntax should only be used when you want the body of the loop to execute at least once regardless of the condition being truthy. Usually, the other form is preferred: while(…) {…}.

The “for” loop

The for loop is more complex, but it’s also the most commonly used loop.

It looks like this:

for (begin; condition; step) { // ... loop body ... }

Let’s learn the meaning of these parts by example. The loop below runs alert(i) for i from 0 up to (but not including) 3:

for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // shows 0, then 1, then 2 alert(i); }

Let’s examine the for statement part-by-part:

part
begin	let i = 0	Executes once upon entering the loop.
condition	i < 3	Checked before every loop iteration. If false, the loop stops.
body	alert(i)	Runs again and again while the condition is truthy.
step	i++	Executes after the body on each iteration.

The general loop algorithm works like this:

Run begin → (if condition → run body and run step) → (if condition → run body and run step) → (if condition → run body and run step) → ...

That is, begin executes once, and then it iterates: after each condition test, body and step are executed.

If you are new to loops, it could help to go back to the example and reproduce how it runs step-by-step on a piece of paper.

Here’s exactly what happens in our case:

// for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) alert(i) // run begin let i = 0 // if condition → run body and run step if (i < 3) { alert(i); i++ } // if condition → run body and run step if (i < 3) { alert(i); i++ } // if condition → run body and run step if (i < 3) { alert(i); i++ } // ...finish, because now i == 3

Here, the “counter” variable i is declared right in the loop. This is called an “inline” variable declaration. Such variables are visible only inside the loop.

for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) { alert(i); // 0, 1, 2 } alert(i); // error, no such variable

Instead of defining a variable, we could use an existing one:

let i = 0; for (i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // use an existing variable alert(i); // 0, 1, 2 } alert(i); // 3, visible, because declared outside of the loop

Skipping parts

Any part of for can be skipped.

For example, we can omit begin if we don’t need to do anything at the loop start.

Like here:

let i = 0; // we have i already declared and assigned for (; i < 3; i++) { // no need for "begin" alert( i ); // 0, 1, 2 }

We can also remove the step part:

let i = 0; for (; i < 3;) { alert( i++ ); }

This makes the loop identical to while (i < 3).

We can actually remove everything, creating an infinite loop:

for (;;) { // repeats without limits }

Please note that the two for semicolons ; must be present. Otherwise, there would be a syntax error.

Breaking the loop

Normally, a loop exits when its condition becomes falsy.

But we can force the exit at any time using the special break directive.

For example, the loop below asks the user for a series of numbers, “breaking” when no number is entered:

let sum = 0; while (true) { let value = +prompt("Enter a number", ''); if (!value) break; // (*) sum += value; } alert( 'Sum: ' + sum );

The break directive is activated at the line (*) if the user enters an empty line or cancels the input. It stops the loop immediately, passing control to the first line after the loop. Namely, alert.

The combination “infinite loop + break as needed” is great for situations when a loop’s condition must be checked not in the beginning or end of the loop, but in the middle or even in several places of its body.

Continue to the next iteration

The continue directive is a “lighter version” of break. It doesn’t stop the whole loop. Instead, it stops the current iteration and forces the loop to start a new one (if the condition allows).

We can use it if we’re done with the current iteration and would like to move on to the next one.

The loop below uses continue to output only odd values:

for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) { // if true, skip the remaining part of the body if (i % 2 == 0) continue; alert(i); // 1, then 3, 5, 7, 9 }

For even values of i, the continue directive stops executing the body and passes control to the next iteration of for (with the next number). So the alert is only called for odd values.

A loop that shows odd values could look like this:

for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) { if (i % 2) { alert( i ); } }

From a technical point of view, this is identical to the example above. Surely, we can just wrap the code in an if block instead of using continue.

But as a side effect, this created one more level of nesting (the alert call inside the curly braces). If the code inside of if is longer than a few lines, that may decrease the overall readability.

Please note that syntax constructs that are not expressions cannot be used with the ternary operator ?. In particular, directives such as break/continue aren’t allowed there.

For example, if we take this code:

if (i > 5) { alert(i); } else { continue; }

…and rewrite it using a question mark:

(i > 5) ? alert(i) : continue; // continue isn't allowed here

…it stops working: there’s a syntax error.

This is just another reason not to use the question mark operator ? instead of if.

Labels for break/continue

Sometimes we need to break out from multiple nested loops at once.

For example, in the code below we loop over i and j, prompting for the coordinates (i, j) from (0,0) to (2,2):

for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) { for (let j = 0; j < 3; j++) { let input = prompt(`Value at coords (${i},${j})`, ''); // what if we want to exit from here to Done (below)? } } alert('Done!');

We need a way to stop the process if the user cancels the input.

The ordinary break after input would only break the inner loop. That’s not sufficient – labels, come to the rescue!

A label is an identifier with a colon before a loop:

labelName: for (...) { ... }

The break <labelName> statement in the loop below breaks out to the label:

outer: for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) { for (let j = 0; j < 3; j++) { let input = prompt(`Value at coords (${i},${j})`, ''); // if an empty string or canceled, then break out of both loops if (!input) break outer; // (*) // do something with the value... } } alert('Done!');

In the code above, break outer looks upwards for the label named outer and breaks out of that loop.

So the control goes straight from (*) to alert('Done!').

We can also move the label onto a separate line:

outer: for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) { ... }

The continue directive can also be used with a label. In this case, code execution jumps to the next iteration of the labeled loop.

Labels do not allow us to jump into an arbitrary place in the code.

For example, it is impossible to do this:

break label; // jump to the label below (doesn't work) label: for (...)

A break directive must be inside a code block. Technically, any labelled code block will do, e.g.:

label: { // ... break label; // works // ... }

…Although, 99.9% of the time break is used inside loops, as we’ve seen in the examples above.

A continue is only possible from inside a loop.

Summary

We covered 3 types of loops:

while – The condition is checked before each iteration.
do..while – The condition is checked after each iteration.
for (;;) – The condition is checked before each iteration, additional settings available.

To make an “infinite” loop, usually the while(true) construct is used. Such a loop, just like any other, can be stopped with the break directive.

If we don’t want to do anything in the current iteration and would like to forward to the next one, we can use the continue directive.

break/continue support labels before the loop. A label is the only way for break/continue to escape a nested loop to go to an outer one.