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So loops are kind of cool because they allow your program

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to execute lines of code over and over and over.

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Repeatedly, without having to copy and paste or otherwise repeat them.

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There are three major kinds of loops you'll see.

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You'll probably have occasion to use each one as you progress through CS50.

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Some of these loops are pretty familiar to you from Scratch,

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so again, as we did with conditionals, we'll put them up side by side

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if there is an analogy we can draw.

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>> First is forever from Scratch, which compares to while (true).

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This is what we call an infinite loop.

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The lines of code between the curly braces, much like the puzzle pieces

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that fit inside the C of the forever block,

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will execute repeatedly from top to bottom, over and over and over,

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forever.
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After all, if you recall our discussion of Boolean expressions,

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true is always true.

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So if we're doing something so long as true

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is true-- it seems a little silly-- true is always true, so it'll always run.

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It'll run forever and ever and ever until we

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find a way to break out of it with a break statement, which again,

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we saw a little while ago we were talking about switch.

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>> Or otherwise just kill our program, which incidentally,

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if you ever find yourself in a situation with an infinite loop

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and you don't know how to stop your program from running.

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Just hit control and C and that'll kill your program for you.

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But this, again, is called an infinite loop.

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It is a loop that will run forever.

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Now, while loops are not always infinite, because also

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we can replace the Boolean expression with something

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a little more useful than just true.

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So here's another example.

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While and some Boolean expression and then curly braces.

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That's pretty much analogous to repeat until, from scratch.

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Although in a second, I'll explain the difference.

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>> So in C, if the Boolean expression inside of the while loop

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evaluates to true, the lines of code between the curly braces

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will execute repeatedly over and over and over until Boolean expression

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evaluates to false.

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So for example, you might have some sort of counter.

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So say you at the beginning of this loop say int x equals zero.

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While x is less than 100, do a couple things inside that curly braces,

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then in the end of your loop, you say x plus plus, you're incrementing x.

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Eventually x will get to 100 and you will

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stop because the condition x is less than 100

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will no longer be true as soon as x is equal to 100.

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100 is not less than 100.

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>> Now somewhat confusingly, the behavior of the scratch block is reversed.

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So be really careful if this is your first foray into using loops.

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Basically, the repeat until block in Scratch

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will repeat something over and over and over,

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until the expression, the Boolean expression in the hexagon is true.

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So it will keep doing it until it is true.

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Meanwhile, the while loop will continue to do it until it is false.

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So they're quite similar, but there's that little distinction just

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to be careful of especially as you make your first foray from transitioning

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to Scratch into c.

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The next kind of loop is actually pretty similar.

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It's called the do while loop.
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This loop will execute all the lines of code between the curly braces once,

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and then it will check the Boolean expression.

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If the Boolean expression evaluates to true,

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it'll go back and repeat that process over and over

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and over until the Boolean expression evaluates to false.

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So this loop, unlike a while loop, is guaranteed to run at least one time.

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This can be pretty useful.

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>> Lastly, we have a for loop.

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For loops are kind of syntactically unattractive

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and there's a lot going on here, so bear with me

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as we try and break these pieces apart.

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Generally, the use case of a for loop is you

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want to repeat something a specific number of times.

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In this example here, I have the repeat block

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from Scratch, which is analogous to the for loop
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in C, repeating something 10 times.

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And the for loop on the left there, which

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is a four loop that would do the same thing.

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This would go 10 times.

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Counting from zero, we increment each pass of the loop.

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And we keep doing that until i is less than 10.

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>> So what happens?

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There's a whole lot of code there.

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Let's break it down to what is happening step

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by step as we dig through a for loop.

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The first thing that happened is the counter variable is center.

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Everything to the left of that first semicolon inside the parentheses

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is executed.

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In this case, we are saying int i equals 0.

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Declaring a new variable called i, that variables is a type integer

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and we're saying the value inside that variable is going to be zero.

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>> The second thing we do is we then immediately evaluate

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the Boolean expression.

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Boolean expression is in the middle of the two semicolons.

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I is less than 10.

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That's true here, right?

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We just said i is equal to zero, and so 0 is less than 10,

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and so that condition is true and we will now

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proceed to execute the body of the loop.

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If it was false.

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If, for example, I said instead of i equals 0 there I said i equals 15,

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int i equals 15.

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Well 15 is not less than 10, so we would never enter the body of the loop

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because the Boolean expression there would evaluate to be false.

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>> After we go through from top to bottom, we encounter that closing curly
brace,

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a third thing happens.

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The counter variable is incremented, or rather, the lines

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of code of a statement after the second semicolon inside of the

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for loops parentheses is executed.

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So we start out by saying int i equals 0.

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Then we check whether or not the Boolean expression is true.

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0 is less than, 10 so it's true.

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So we're going to proceed into the body the loop.

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Things will happen inside the loop, and when we encounter that closing curly

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brace, the next thing we do is we say i plus, plus.

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I was zero now i is one.

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Then, we again check the value of the Boolean expression in the middle.

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One is less than 10.

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So we'll go through this process again and again.
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We'll get to the closing curly brace again.

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We'll increment i from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3.

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And so on and so on and so on, until eventually i's value becomes 10.

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Is 10 less than 10?

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No.

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Counting from 0, we've gone through 10 iterations of loop.

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We've repeated 10 times, just as we did in the Scratch block.

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And so that's basically the process for a four loop.

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>> Now taking away the actual code and putting it

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in just some basic general statements.

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Here's what happens.

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All the statements in start are executed first.

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You might have more than one.

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Then, the Boolean expression is checked.

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If the expression evaluates to true, execute the body the loop one time.

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If the expression evaluates to false, we're done.

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We don't execute the body of the loop at all.

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After we've executed the body the loop one time,

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we then do what is in the increment part there.

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Which is usually going to be something like i plus, plus

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or something like that, that modifies a counter variable.

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Then, after we increment, we check the expression again

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and repeat those steps over and over and over until the expression is

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no longer true.

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>> So what are the use cases for a loop?

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Use you use a while loop when you want a loop to repeat

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an unknown number of times, but it possibly might not run all.

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A really common example of a while looping being used

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is to run the control flow for a game.

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You might not know how long the user is going to be playing,

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but you want to keep doing the same thing.

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Updating the positions of various sprites on the board.

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You want to keep things moving at all times,

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but you don't know when the user is going to stop playing

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or when they're going to run out of lives.

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So a while loop is really good for something like that.

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That's a good use case.

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>> For a do while loop, it's pretty similar.

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You want a loop to repeat an unknown number of times, but at least once.

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You might use this for a game too, but a really common use case

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is prompting the user for input.

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Generally, you might say something like, give me a positive integer,

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and you might put that inside of a do while loop.

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So it will always ask them at least once for a positive integer.
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If they give you a positive integer, you might break out of the loop.

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You might be done.

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The Boolean expression in the do while might be false.

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>> And you won't ask them again.

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If they give you a negative number where they type some word or something
that's

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not really useful to you, you might use the

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do while loop to go back and do it again and again and again.

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You definitely want to ask them to give you a number once,

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but you don't know how many times after that they might be pests.

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And so a do while it's a great use case for prompting the user for input.

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And a for loops use case typically is when

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you want to repeat a loop a discrete number of times,

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though you might not know the number of times

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the moment the program is compiled.

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>> So for example, maybe you have a program where you prompt the user for a
number.

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And they enter 100.

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And then your for loop will in that case run 100 times.

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Or maybe they enter 1,000 in your program

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and then run the loop 1,000 times.

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It's a specific number of times.

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They don't necessarily know what that number

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is the moment program is compiled.

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It's not like a while loop where it could be infinite.

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It's rather a number that you just don't know.

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Now even though I've outlined all these use cases,

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you should know that in pretty much every circumstance,

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you can interchange all three of these loops.

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You can use a for loop where you would otherwise use a while loop.

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You can use a for loop wherever you'd use a do while loop and so on.
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It can be a little tricky sometimes, so generally it's a good practice

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to adhere to a typical use case.

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Use a do while loop if you wanted something once, at least.

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Use a for loop if you want to do something a specific number of times.

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After all, that's why there are three different kinds of loops.

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>> So they can be used in the right context.

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But you can interchange them if you want.

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If you feel comfortable with while loops and you always want to use while loops.

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It is something that you can do, although it

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might be a little syntactically tricky, where a for loop

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would be a lot more straightforward.

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>> My name is Doug Lloyd and this is CS50.