Chapter 8.

More Control Statements

8.1 for Statement

The for statement allows the programmer to execute a block of code for a specified
number of times. The general form of the for statement is:

for (initial-statement; condition; iteration-statement)

body-statement;

This statement is equivalent to:

initial-statement;
while (condition) {
body-statement;
iteration-statement;
}

For example, Example 8 -1 uses a while loop to add five numbers.

Example 8-1. total5w/totalw.c

#include <stdio.h>

int total; /* total of all the numbers */

int current; /* current value from the user */
int counter; /* while loop counter */

char line[80]; /* Line from keyboard */

int main() {
total = 0;

counter = 0;
while (counter < 5) {
printf("Number? ");

fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin);

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 sscanf(line, "%d", &current);
total += current;

++counter;
}
printf("The grand total is %d\n", total);
return (0);
}

The same program can be rewritten using a for statement as shown in Example 8 -2 .

Example 8-2. total5f/total5f.c

#include <stdio.h>

int total; /* total of all the numbers */

int current; /* current value from the user */
int counter; /* for loop counter */

char line[80]; /* Input from keyboard */

int main() {
total = 0;
for (counter = 0; counter < 5; ++counter) {
printf("Number? ");

fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin);

sscanf(line, "%d", &current);
total += current;
}
printf("The grand total is %d\n", total);
return (0);
}

Note that counter goes from to 4. Ordinarily, you count five items as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
but you will perform much better in C if you change your thinking to zero -based
counting and then count five items as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. (One-based counting is one of
the main ca uses of array overflow errors. See Chapter 5.)

Careful examination of the two flavors of our program reveals the similarities
between the two versions as seen in Figure 8 -1.

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 Figure 8-1. Similarities between "while" and "for"

Many other programming languages do not allow you to change the control variable
(in this case, counter) inside the loop. C is not so picky. You can change the control
variable at any time —you can jump into and out of the loop and generally do things
that would make a PASCAL or FORTRAN programmer cringe. (Although C gives you
the freedom to do such insane things, that doesn't mean you should do them.)

Question 8-1 : When Example 8 -3 runs, it prints:

Celsius:101 Fahrenheit:213

and nothing more. Why? (Click here for the answer Section 8.4)

Example 8-3. cent/cent.c

#include <stdio.h>
/*
* This program produces a Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion
* chart for the numbers 0 to 100.
*/

/* The current Celsius temperature we are working with */

int celsius;
int main() {
for (celsius = 0; celsius <= 100; ++celsius);
printf("Celsius:%d Fahrenheit:%d\n",

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 celsius, (celsius * 9) / 5 + 32);
return (0);
}

Question 8-2 : Example 8 -4 reads a list of five numbers and counts the number of
3s and 7s in the data. Why does it give us the wron g answers? (Click here for the
answer Section 8.4 )

Example 8-4. seven/seven.c

#include <stdio.h>
char line[100]; /* line of input */
int seven_count; /* number of 7s in the data */
int data[5]; /* the data to count 3 and 7 in */
int three_count; /* the number of 3s in the data */
int index; /* index into the data */

int main() {

seven_count = 0;
three_count = 0;
printf("Enter 5 numbers\n");
fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin);
sscanf(line, "%d %d %d %d %d",
&data[1], &data[2], &data[3],
&data[4], &data[5]);

for (index = 1; index <= 5; ++index) {

if (data[index] == 3)
++three_count;

if (data[index] == 7)
++seven_count;
}
printf("Threes %d Sevens %d\n",
three_count, seven_count);
return (0);
}

When we run this program with the data 3 7 3 0 2, the results are:

Threes 4 Sevens 1

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(Your results may vary.)

8.2 switch Statement

The switch statement is similar to a chain of if/else statements. The general form
of a switch statement is:

switch ( expression ) {
case constant1 :
statement
. . . .
break ;

case constant2 :
statement
. . . .
/* Fall through */

default:
statement
. . . .
break ;

case constant3 :
statement
. . . .
break ;
}

The switch statement evaluates the value of an expression and branches to one of
the case labels. Duplicate labels are not allowed, so only one case will be selected.
The expression must evaluate an integer, character, or enumeration.

The case labels can be in any order and must be constants. Th e default label can
be put anywhere in the switch. No two case labels can have the same value.

When C sees a switch statement, it evaluates the expression and then looks for a
matching case label. If none is found, the default label is used. If no default is
found, the statement does nothing.

The switch statement is very similar to the PASCAL

case statement. The main difference is that while
PASCAL allows only one statement after the label, C

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 allows many. C will keep executing until it hits a
break statement. In PASCAL, you can't fall through
from one case to another, but in C you can.

Another difference between the C Switch and PASCAL

case statements is that PASCAL requires that the
default statement (otherwise statement) appear at
the end. C allows the default statement to appear
anywhere.

Example 8 -5 contains a series of if and else statements:

Example 8-5. Syntax for if and else

if (operator == '+') {
result += value;
} else if (operator == '-') {
result -= value;
} else if (operator == '*') {
result *= value;
} else if (operator == '/') {
if (value == 0) {
printf("Error:Divide by zero\n");
printf(" operation ignored\n");
} else
result /= value;
} else {
printf("Unknown operator %c\n", operator);
}

This section of code can easily be rewritten as a switch statement. In this switch ,
we use a different case for each operation. The default clause takes care of all the
illegal operators.

Rewriting our program using a switch statement makes it not only simpler, but
easier to read. Our revised calc program is shown as Example 8 -6 .

Example 8-6. calc3/calc3.c

#include <stdio.h>
char line[100]; /* line of text from input */

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int result; /* the result of the calculations */
char operator; /* operator the user specified */
int value; /* value specified after the operator */
int main()
{
result = 0; /* initialize the result */

/* loop forever (or until break reached) */

while (1) {
printf("Result: %d\n", result);
printf("Enter operator and number: ");

fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin);

sscanf(line, "%c %d", &operator, &value);

if ((operator == 'q') || (operator == 'Q'))

break;
switch (operator) {
case '+':
result += value;
break;
case '-':
result -= value;
break;
case '*':
result *= value;
break;
case '/':
if (value == 0) {
printf("Error:Divide by zero\n");
printf(" operation ignored\n");
} else
result /= value;
break;
default:
printf("Unknown operator %c\n", operator);
break;
}
}
return (0);
}

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A break statement inside a switch tells the computer to continue execution after
the switch. If a break statement is not there, execution will continue with the next
statement.

For example:

control = 0;
/* a not so good example of programming */
switch (control) {
case 0:
printf("Reset\n");
case 1:
printf("Initializing\n");
break;
case 2:
printf("Working\n");
}

In this case, when control == 0, the program will print:

Reset
Initializing

case 0 does not end with a break statement. After printingReset, the program falls
through to the next statement (case 1 ) and prints Initializing.

A problem exists with this syntax. You cannot determine if the program is supposed
to fall through from case 0 to case 1, or if the programmer forgot to put in a break
statement. In order to clear up this confusion, a case section should always end
with a break statement or the comment /* Fall through */, as shown in the
following example:

/* a better example of programming */

switch (control) {
case 0:
printf("Reset\n");
/* Fall through */
case 1:
printf("Initializing\n");
break;
case 2:
printf("Working\n");
}

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Because case 2 is last, it doesn't need abreak statement. A break would cause the
program to skip to the end of the switch, and we're already there.

Suppose we modify the program slightly and add another case to the switch:

/* We have a little problem */

switch (control) {
case 0:
printf("Reset\n");
/* Fall through */
case 1:
printf("Initializing\n");
break;
case 2:
printf("Working\n");
case 3:
printf("Closing down\n");
}

Now when control == 2, the program prints:

Working
Closing down

This result is an unpleasant surprise. The problem is caused by the fact that case 2
is no longer the last case. We fall through. (Unintentionally—otherwise, we would
have included a /* Fall through */ comment.) A break is now necessary. If we
always put in a break statement, we don't have to worry about whether or not it is
really needed.

/* Almost there */
switch (control) {
case 0:
printf("Reset\n");
/* Fall through */
case 1:
printf("Initializing\n");
break;
case 2:
printf("Working\n");
break;
}

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Finally, we ask the question: what happens when control == 5? In this case,
because no matching case or default clause exists, the entire switch statement is
skipped.

In this example, the programmer did not include a default statement because
control will never be anything but 0, 1, or 2. However, variables can get assigned
strange values, so we need a little more defensive programming, as shown in the
following example:

/* The final version */

switch (control) {
case 0:
printf("Reset\n");
/* Fall through */
case 1:
printf("Initializing\n");
break;
case 2:
printf("Working\n");
break;
default:
printf(
"Internal error, control value (%d) impossible\n",
control);
break;
}

Although a default is not required, it should be put in every switch. Even though
the default may be:

default:
/* Do nothing */
break;

it should be included. This method indicates, at the very least, that you want to
ignore out-o f-range data.

8.3 switch, break, and continue

The break statement has two uses. Used inside a switch , break causes the
program to go to the end of the switch. Inside a for or while loop, break causes
a loop exit. Thecontinue statement is valid only inside a loop. Continue will cause
the program to go to the top of the loop. Figure 8-2 illu strates both continue and
break inside a switch statement.

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The program in Figure 8 -2 is designed to convert an integer with a number of
different formats into different bases. If you want to know the value of an octal
number, you would enter o ( for octal) and the number. The command q is used to
quit the program. For example:

Enter conversion and number: o 55

Result is 45
Enter conversion and number: q

The help command is special because we don't want to print a number after the
command. After all, the result of help is a few lines of text, not a number. So a
continue is used inside the switch to start the loop at the beginning. Inside the
switch, the continue statement works on the loop, while the break statement
works on the switch.

There is one break outside the switch that isdesigned to let the user exit the
program. The control flow for this program can be seen in Figure 8 -2.

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 Figure 8 -2. switch/continue

8.4 Answers

Answer 8 -1 : The problem lies with the semicolon (; ) at the end of the for
statement. The body of the for statement is between the closing parentheses and
the semicolon. In this case, the body does not exist. Even though the printf
statement is indented, it is not part of the for statement. The indentation is
misleading. The C compiler does not look at indentation. The program does nothing
until the expression:

celsius <= 100

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becomes false (celsius == 101). Then the printf is executed.

Answer 8 -2 : The problem is that we read the number into data[1] through
data[5]. In C, the range o f legal array indices is to array-size-1, or in this case, to
4. data[5] is illegal. When we use it, strange things happen; in this case, the
variable three_count is changed. The solution is to only use data[0] to data[4].

So, we need to change the sscanf line to read:

sscanf(line, "%d %d %d %d %d",

&data[0], &data[1], &data[2], &data[3], &data[4]);

Also, the for loop must be changed from:

for (index = 1; index <= 5; ++index)

to:

for (index = 0; index < 5; ++index)

Experienced C programmers could look at our broken

for loop and immediately sense that something was
wrong. Two clues that something strange is going on
are 1) the for loop starts at 1, and 2) there is a <=
operator in the loop. Most C for loops start at and use
< for termination.

8.5 Programming Exercises

Exercise 8-1 : Print a checker board (8 -b y-8 grid). Each square should be 5 -by-3
characters wide. A 2-b y-2 example follows:

+-----+-----+
| | |
| | |
| | |
+-----+-----+
| | |
| | |
| | |
+-----+-----+

Exercise 8-2 : The total resistance of n resistors in parallel is:

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Suppose we have a network of two resistors with the values 400 and 200 .

Then our equation would be:

Substituting in the value of the resistors we get:

So the total resistance of our two-resistor network is 133.3 .

Write a program to compute the total resistance for any number of parallel resistors.

Exercise 8-3 : Write a program to average n numbers.

Exercise 8-4 : Write a program to print out the multiplication table.

Exercise 8 -5 : Write a program that reads a character and prints out whether or not
it is a vowel or a consonant.

Exercise 8-6: Write a program that converts numbers to words. For example, 895
results in "eight nine five."

Exercise 8-7: The number 85 is pronounced "eighty-five," not "eight five." Modify
the previous program to handle the numbers through 100 so that all numbers come
out as we really say them. For example, 13 would be "thirteen" and 100 would be
"one hundred."

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