LOOPS: LESSON
Breaking Out
When working with loops, it’s important to know a few special keywords that can
affect how a loop runs. Let’s look at a quick example to introduce the first
special keyword!
Do you remember the while loop from exercise 3?
while (guess != 8 && tries < 50) {
printf("Wrong guess, try again: ");
scanf("%d", &guess);
tries++;
}
The loop runs until 8 is guessed or 50 attempts have been made to guess the secret
number. This means the loop will stop running as soon as one of those conditions is
met. There is another way to write this, but using a special keyword. See if you
can spot it!
while (tries < 50) {
scanf("%d", &guess);
if (guess == 8) {
break;
}
printf("Wrong guess, try again: ");
tries++;
}
The keyword break allows us to, quite literally, “break” out of a loop and stop it
from running any more times.
It can often simply be avoided with careful planning of the conditional controlling
a loop. It’s generally advised to be careful with breaking out of loops because it
can result in unexpected processing when a programmer has a mental plan centered
around a loop finishing all its iterations.
However, when used effectively, a break can increase the efficiency of a program
and help minimize its memory uses through unnecessary variables.
Note: break is most often used when a program wants to run a loop infinitely in a
controlled manner. For example, a program that runs until the user types “quit.” In
that instance, the program may run forever, but will only break out of its running
loop when the user tells it.
Instructions
1.
In our program, the while loop will run a set amount of times or until a non-
positive number is entered (this includes 0 and negative numbers). Without changing
the condition of the while loop, try to get it to stop when a non-positive number
is entered using the break keyword.
Checkpoint 2 Passed
Stuck? Get a hint
2.
You may have noticed the break keyword isn’t necessary here to stop the loop from
running.
Create a second while loop below the first one and use the condition number2 > 0 &&
numbers_entered2 < 10, then write the loop as normal without any break. Don’t
forget to initialize the new variables at the top of main.
Run the program again with the second loop, you’ll see both loops act the same
exact way and stop when a negative number is entered.
Checkpoint 3 Passed
Stuck? Get a hint
code
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int number1 = 1;
int numbers_entered1 = 0;
while (numbers_entered1 < 10) {
printf("Loop 1 - Please enter a number: ");
scanf("%d", &number1);
// Figure out how to break out here!
if (number1<=0){
break;
}
numbers_entered1++;
}
printf("Good job! You’ve broken out!\n");
}
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int number1 = 1;
int numbers_entered1 = 0;
int number2=1;
int numbers_entered2 =0;
while (numbers_entered1 < 10) {
printf("Loop 1 - Please enter a number: ");
scanf("%d", &number1);
numbers_entered1++;
}
while (number2>0 && numbers_entered2<10)
{
printf ("Loop 2- Please enter a number:");
scanf ("%d",&number2);
}
printf("Good job! You’ve broken out!\n");
}
