Loops and Iteration

Python for Everybody

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 n=5 Repeated Steps
Output:
No Yes Program:
n>0? 5
n = 5 4
print(n) while n > 0 :
3
print(n)
n = n – 1 2
n = n -1 print('Blastoff!') 1
print(n) Blastoff!
0
Loops (repeated steps) have iteration variables that
print('Blastoff') change each time through a loop. Often these iteration
variables go through a sequence of numbers.
 n=5 An Infinite Loop
No Yes
n>0?
n = 5
while n > 0 :
print('Lather') print('Lather')
print('Rinse')
print('Rinse') print('Dry off!')

print('Dry off!') What is wrong with this loop?

 n=0 Another Loop
No Yes
n>0?
n = 0
while n > 0 :
print('Lather') print('Lather')
print('Rinse')
print('Rinse') print('Dry off!')

print('Dry off!') What is this loop doing?

 Indefinite Loops

• While loops are called “indefinite loops” because they keep

going until a logical condition becomes False

• The loops we have seen so far are pretty easy to examine to see
if they will terminate or if they will be “infinite loops”

• Sometimes it is a little harder to be sure if a loop will terminate

Definite Loops
Iterating over a set of items…
 Definite Loops
• Quite often we have a list of items of the lines in a file -
effectively a finite set of things

• We can write a loop to run the loop once for each of the items in
a set using the Python for construct

• These loops are called “definite loops” because they execute an

exact number of times

• We say that “definite loops iterate through the members of a set”

 A Simple Definite Loop
5
for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] :
print(i)
4
print('Blastoff!') 3
2
1
Blastoff!
 A Definite Loop with Strings

Happy New Year: Joseph

friends = ['Joseph', 'Glenn', 'Sally'] Happy New Year: Glenn
for friend in friends : Happy New Year: Sally
print('Happy New Year:', friend)
print('Done!')
Done!
 A Simple Definite Loop
Yes No
Done? Move i ahead 5
for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] : 4
print(i) 3
print(i) print('Blastoff!')
2
1
Blastoff!

Definite loops (for loops) have explicit iteration variables

print('Blast off!') that change each time through a loop. These iteration
variables move through the sequence or set.
 Looking at in...
• The iteration variable
“iterates” through the Five-element
sequence (ordered set) sequence
Iteration variable
• The block (body) of code is
executed once for each for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] :
value in the sequence print(i)

• The iteration variable moves

through all of the values in
the sequence
 No • The iteration variable “iterates”
Yes
Done? Move i ahead through the sequence (ordered
set)
print(i)
• The block (body) of code is
executed once for each value in
the sequence

• The iteration variable moves

through all of the values in the
for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] :
print(i)
sequence
 i=5
No print(i)
Yes
Done? Move i ahead i=4
print(i)
print(i)
i=3
print(i)

i=2

for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] : print(i)

print(i)
i=1
print(i)
 Looping Through a Set
$ python basicloop.py
print('Before')
Before
for thing in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] : 9
print(thing) 41
print('After')
12
3
74
15
After