Software II: Principles of

Programming Languages
Lecture 8 – Statement-Level
Control Structures

Control Statements: Evolution

• FORTRAN I control statements were based

directly on IBM 704 hardware
• Much research and argument in the 1960s
about the issue
– One important result: It was proven that all
algorithms represented by flowcharts can be
coded with only two-way selection and pretest
logical loops
 Control Structure
• A control structure is a control statement
and the statements whose execution it
controls
• Design question
– Should a control structure have multiple
entries?

Selection Statements
• A selection statement provides the means
of choosing between two or more paths of
execution
• Two general categories:
– Two-way selectors
– Multiple-way selectors
 Two-Way Selection Statements
• General form:
if control_expression
then clause
else clause
• Design Issues:
– What is the form and type of the control expression?
– How are the then and else clauses specified?
– How should the meaning of nested selectors be
specified?

The Control Expression

• If the then reserved word or some other
syntactic marker is not used to introduce the
then clause, the control expression is placed
in parentheses
• In C89, C99, Python, and C++, the control
expression can be arithmetic
• In most other languages, the control
expression must be Boolean
 Clause Form
• In many contemporary languages, the then and
else clauses can be single statements or compound
statements
• In Perl, all clauses must be delimited by braces
(they must be compound)
• In Fortran 95, Ada, Python, and Ruby, clauses are
statement sequences
• Python uses indentation to define clauses
if x > y :
x = y
print " x was greater than y"

Nesting Selectors
• Java example
if (sum == 0)
if (count == 0)
result = 0;
else result = 1;
• Which if gets the else?
• Java's static semantics rule: else matches
with the nearest previous if
 Nesting Selectors (continued)
• To force an alternative semantics,
compound statements may be used:
if (sum == 0) {
if (count == 0)
result = 0;
}
else result = 1;
• The above solution is used in C, C++, and
C#

Nesting Selectors (continued)

• Statement sequences as clauses: Ruby
if sum == 0 then
if count == 0 then
result = 0
else
result = 1
end
end
 Nesting Selectors (continued)
• Python
if sum == 0 :
if count == 0 :
result = 0
else :
result = 1

Selector Expressions
• In ML, F#, and LISP, the selector is an
expression
• F#
let y =
if x > 0 then x
else 2 * x
– If the if expression returns a value, there must
be an else clause (the expression could
produce output, rather than a value)
 Multiple-Way Selection Statements
• Allow the selection of one of any number of
statements or statement groups
• Design Issues:
1. What is the form and type of the control expression?
2. How are the selectable segments specified?
3. Is execution flow through the structure restricted to
include just a single selectable segment?
4. How are case values specified?
5. What is done about unrepresented expression values?

Multiple-Way Selection: Examples

• C, C++, Java, and JavaScript
switch (expression) {
case const_expr1: stmt1;
…
case const_exprn: stmtn;
[default: stmtn+1]
}
 Multiple-Way Selection: Examples
• Design choices for C’s switch statement
1. Control expression can be only an integer type
2. Selectable segments can be statement sequences,
blocks, or compound statements
3. Any number of segments can be executed in one
execution of the construct (there is no implicit branch
at the end of selectable segments)
4. default clause is for unrepresented values (if there is
no default, the whole statement does nothing)

Multiple-Way Selection: Examples

• C#
– Differs from C in that it has a static semantics
rule that disallows the implicit execution of
more than one segment
– Each selectable segment must end with an
unconditional branch (goto or break)
– Also, in C# the control expression and the case
constants can be strings
Multiple-Way Selection: Examples
• Ruby has two forms of case statements -
we’ll cover only one
leap = case
when year % 400 == 0 then true
when year % 100 == 0 then false
else year % 4 == 0
end

Implementing Multiple Selectors

• Approaches:
– Multiple conditional branches
– Store case values in a table and use a linear search of
the table
– When there are more than ten cases, a hash table of case
values can be used
– If the number of cases is small and more than half of
the whole range of case values are represented, an array
whose indices are the case values and whose values are
the case labels can be used
 Multiple-Way Selection Using if
• Multiple Selectors can appear as direct
extensions to two-way selectors, using else-
if clauses, for example in Python:
if count < 10 :
bag1 = True
elif count < 100 :
bag2 = True
elif count < 1000 :
bag3 = True

Multiple-Way Selection Using if

• The Python example can be written as a

Ruby case
case
when count < 10 then bag1 = true
when count < 100 then bag2 = true
when count < 1000 then bag3 = true
end
 Scheme’s Multiple Selector
• General form of a call to cond:
(cond
(predicate1 expression1)
…
(predicaten expressionn)
[(ELSE expressionn+1)]
)

Scheme’s Multiple Selector

• The else clause is optional; else is a
synonym for true
• Each predicate-expression pair is a
parameter
• Semantics: The value of the evaluation of
cond is the value of the expression
associated with the first predicate
expression that is true
 Iterative Statements
• The repeated execution of a statement or
compound statement is accomplished either
by iteration or recursion
• General design issues for iteration control
statements:
1. How is iteration controlled?
2. Where is the control mechanism in the loop?

Counter-Controlled Loops
• A counting iterative statement has a loop variable,
and a means of specifying the initial and terminal,
and stepsize values
• Design Issues:
1. What are the type and scope of the loop variable?
2. Should it be legal for the loop variable or loop
parameters to be changed in the loop body, and if so,
does the change affect loop control?
3. Should the loop parameters be evaluated only once,
or once for every iteration?
 Counter-Controlled Loops: Examples

• Ada
for var in [reverse] discrete_range loop
...
end loop

Counter-Controlled Loops: Ada

• Design choices:
– Type of the loop variable is that of the discrete
range (A discrete range is a sub-range of an
integer or enumeration type).
– Loop variable does not exist outside the loop
– The loop variable cannot be changed in the
loop, but the discrete range can; it does not
affect loop control
– The discrete range is evaluated just once
– Cannot branch into the loop body
 Counter-Controlled Loops: Examples

• C-based languages
for ([expr_1] ; [expr_2] ; [expr_3])
statement
– The expressions can be whole statements, or even
statement sequences, with the statements separated by
commas
– The value of a multiple-statement expression is the
value of the last statement in the expression
– If the second expression is absent, it is an infinite loop

Counter-Controlled Loops: C-based

Languages

• Design choices:
– There is no explicit loop variable
– Everything can be changed in the loop
– The first expression is evaluated once, but the
other two are evaluated with each iteration
– It is legal to branch into the body of a for loop
in C
 Counter-Controlled Loops: Examples

• C++ differs from C in two ways:

1. The control expression can also be Boolean
2. The initial expression can include variable
definitions (scope is from the definition to the
end of the loop body)
• Java and C#
– Differs from C++ in that the control expression
must be Boolean

Counter-Controlled Loops: Examples

• Python
for loop_variable in object:
loop body
[else:
else clause]
 Counter-Controlled Loops: Examples
• Python
– The object is often a range, which is either a list
of values in brackets ([2, 4, 6]), or a call to the
range function (range(5), which returns 0, 1, 2,
3, 4
– The loop variable takes on the values specified
in the given range, one for each iteration
– The else clause, which is optional, is executed
if the loop terminates normally

Counter-Controlled Loops: Example in F#

• Because counters require variables, and functional
languages do not have variables, counter-controlled loops
must be simulated with recursive functions
let rec forLoop loopBody reps =
if reps <= 0 then ()
else
loopBody()
forLoop loopBody, (reps – 1)

• This defines the recursive function forLoop with the

parameters loopBody (a function that defines the loop’s
body) and the number of repetitions
• () means do nothing and return nothing
 Logically-Controlled Loops
• Repetition control is based on a Boolean
expression
• Design issues:
– Pretest or posttest?
– Should the logically controlled loop be a
special case of the counting loop statement or a
separate statement?

Logically-Controlled Loops: Examples

• C and C++ have both pretest and posttest

forms, in which the control expression can
be arithmetic:
while (control_expr)
loop_body
or
do {
loop body
while (control_expr)
 Logically-Controlled Loops:
Examples
• In both C and C++ it is legal to branch into
the body of a logically-controlled loop
• Java is like C and C++, except the control
expression must be Boolean (and the body
can only be entered at the beginning - Java
has no goto

Logically-Controlled Loops: Examples in F#

• As with counter-controlled loops, logically-controlled

loops can be simulated with recursive functions
let rec whileLoop test body =
if test() then
body()
whileLoop test body
else ()
• This defines the recursive function whileLoop with
parameters test and body, both functions. test defines the
control expression
 User-Located Loop Control
Mechanisms
• Sometimes it is convenient for the
programmers to decide a location for loop
control (other than top or bottom of the
loop)
• Simple design for single loops (e.g., break)
• Design issues for nested loops
– Should the conditional be part of the exit?
– Should control be transferable out of more than
one loop?

User-Located Loop Control

Mechanisms
• C , C++, Python, Ruby, and C# have
unconditional unlabeled exits (break)
• Java and Perl have unconditional labeled exits
(break in Java, last in Perl)
• C, C++, and Python have an unlabeled control
statement, continue, that skips the remainder of
the current iteration, but does not exit the loop
• Java and Perl have labeled versions of continue
 Iteration Based on Data
Structures
• The number of elements in a data structure
controls loop iteration
• Control mechanism is a call to an iterator function
that returns the next element in some chosen
order, if there is one; else loop is terminate
• C's for can be used to build a user-defined
iterator:
for (p=root; p==NULL; traverse(p)){
...
}

Iteration Based on Data Structures

(continued)
• PHP
– current points at one element of the array
– next moves current to the next element
– reset moves current to the first element
 Iteration Based on Data Structures
(continued)
• Java 5.0 (uses for, although it is called
foreach)
• For arrays and any other class that
implements the Iterable interface, e.g.,
ArrayList
for (String myElement : myList) { …
}

Iteration Based on Data Structures

(continued)

• C# and F# (and the other .NET languages)

have generic library classes, like Java 5.0
(for arrays, lists, stacks, and queues). Can
iterate over these with the foreach
statement. User-defined collections can
implement the IEnumerator interface and
also use foreach.
 Iteration Based on Data Structures
(continued)

List<String> names = new List<String>();

names.Add("Bob");
names.Add("Carol");
names.Add("Ted");

foreach (Strings name in names)

Console.WriteLine ("Name: {0}",
name);

Iteration Based on Data

Structures in Ruby
• Ruby blocks are sequences of code,
delimited by either braces or do and end
• Blocks can be used with methods to create
iterators
 Iteration Based on Data Structures in
Ruby (continued)
• Predefined iterator methods (times, each,
upto):
3.times {puts ″Hey!″}
list.each {|value| puts value}
(list is an array; value is a block parameter)
1.upto(5) {|x| print x, ″ ″}

• Ruby has a for statement, but Ruby converts

them to upto method calls

Iteration Based on Data

Structures in Ada
• Ada allows the range of a loop iterator and
the subscript range of an array be connected
subtype MyRange is Integer range 0.99;
MyArray: array (MyRange) of Integer;
for Index in MyRange loop
...MyArray(Index) ...
end loop;
 Unconditional Branching
• Transfers execution control to a specified place in the
program
• Represented one of the most heated debates in 1960’s and
1970’s
• Major concern: Readability
• Some languages do not support goto statement (e.g., Java)
• C# offers goto statement (can be used in switch
statements)
• Loop exit statements are restricted and somewhat
camouflaged goto’s

Guarded Commands
• Designed by Dijkstra
• Purpose: to support a new programming
methodology that supported verification
(correctness) during development
• Basis for two linguistic mechanisms for
concurrent programming (in CSP and Ada)
• Basic Idea: if the order of evaluation is not
important, the program should not specify one
 Selection Guarded Command
• Form
if <Boolean expr> -> <statement>
[] <Boolean expr> -> <statement>
...
[] <Boolean expr> -> <statement>
fi
• Semantics: when construct is reached,
– Evaluate all Boolean expressions
– If more than one are true, choose one non-
deterministically
– If none are true, it is a runtime error

Loop Guarded Command

• Form
do <Boolean> -> <statement>
[] <Boolean> -> <statement>
...
[] <Boolean> -> <statement>
od
• Semantics: for each iteration
– Evaluate all Boolean expressions
– If more than one are true, choose one non-
deterministically; then start loop again
– If none are true, exit loop
 Guarded Commands: Rationale
• Connection between control statements and
program verification is intimate
• Verification is impossible with goto
statements
• Verification is possible with only selection
and logical pretest loops
• Verification is relatively simple with only
guarded commands