Iteration Statements

CSE 4373: Computer Programming and Applications

Ajwad Abrar
Junior Lecturer, CSE
A scenario
● You’ve opened up a bakery

● People are going crazy for your Red

velvet cakes

● You have to increase your production

● But the recipe is the same for each

cake

● You’re baking the same cake over

and over again 2

Iterations
Think about other scenarios where one might have to do the same thing over and
over again in a loop until some condition has been met.

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Iterating decisions

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How do we translate this into
programming?

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Basic thermostat
● It has to keep the temperature fixed in a
certain range
● Assume that the range is between 20
degrees celsius and 25 degrees celsius
If temperature > 25 → Decrease temperature
If temperature < 20 → Increase temperature
Else → Do nothing

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Basic thermostat
if(t > 25)
// Decrease temperature
else if(t < 20)
// Increase temperature
else
// Do nothing

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Basic thermostat
● But we can’t check just once
● Must repeat it every 5-10 minutes

Repeat every 5 minutes: → Controlling expression

Check & adjust temperature → Loop body

Is there a stopping condition for this?

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Iteration statements

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Iteration statements
● Repeatedly execute some statement → Loop body
● Check the controlling expression each time loop
body is executed
○ If the expression is True (non-zero value), keep
looping
○ If the expression is False (zero value), exit the
loop

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Logical data in C
Does not have a dedicated boolean datatype

1 True

0 False

Others True

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Iteration statements
Iteration statements are also
called loops
10 < 13

Types of loops:
● while
● do while 1.3 >= 12
● for

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while statement

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while statement
Repeat expressions by testing a controlling expression

while(expression) {statement}

Controlling expression is tested before execution of loop body

If the expression gives Non-zero values, only then the statement will be repeated

int number = 1;
while(number <= 5)
{
printf(“Hello”);
} 14
while statement
int iterator = 1;
while(iterator <= 3) // check this condition every time
{
printf(“%d\n”, iterator); // printing the value in iterator
iterator = iterator + 1; // increasing iterator by 1
}

What does this code do?

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while statement
int i = 1; i = 1; i is now 1
while(i <= 2) Is i <= 2? Yes. Continue
{ printf() prints i = 1
printf(“%d\n”, i); i = i + 1 i is now 2
i = i + 1; Is i <= 2? Yes. Continue
} printf() prints i = 2
i = i + 1 i is now 3
Is i <= 2? No. Exit loop

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while statement
The while loop may not be executed at all, since the controlling
expression is checked before execution
int i = 10;
while(i < 5)
{
printf(“Hello\n”);
i++;
}
printf(“We are done.”);
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Pop Quiz

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while statement
How to keep a while loop running forever?

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while statement
How to keep a while loop running
forever?

while(1)
{
// expressions
}

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while statement
An infinite loop will execute forever unless its body contains a
statement that transfers control out of the loop (break, goto,
return) or calls a function that causes the program to terminate
(exit).

Infinite loops can crash your program or your computer

Try to avoid them unless you want them deliberately

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Pop Quiz

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FizzBuzz
Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to n. But
● for multiples of 3, print ‘Fizz’ instead of the number,
● and for multiples of 5, print ‘Buzz’.
● For numbers that are multiples of both 3 and 5, print
‘FizzBuzz’

This question can be encountered in coding interviews for

big tech companies.

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do while statement

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do while statement
This is very similar to the while statement with one simple difference
It executes loop body first, then evaluates controlling expression
do {statement} while(expression);
If value of the expression is nonzero, execute the loop body and check again

int i = 10;
do
{
printf(“%d\n”, i); // prints the number in i
i = i - 1; // decrements i by 1
}while(i > 0);

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do while statement
In case of do while statement, the loop body is execute at least once.

int i = 10; int i = 10;

while(i < 5) do
{ {
printf(“Hello\n”); printf(“Hello\n”);
i++; i++;
} }while(i < 5);
printf(“We are done.”); printf(“We are done.”);

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Pop Quiz

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do while statement
Will these produce the same output?

int x = 5; int y = 5;
while(x > 0) do
{ {
printf("%d ", x); printf("%d ", y);
x--; y--;
} }while (y > 0);

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for statement

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for statement
● Probably the most used looping statement
● Best for counting variables
for(expr1; expr2; expr3) {statement}

expr1 → initialization step → performed only once before the loop begins
expr2 → controlling expression → continues looping as long as expr2 is nonzero
expr3 → performed every time at the end of each iteration.

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for statement
Translate a while loop into a for loop

int i = 5; // expr1 int i; // declare i

while(i > 0) // expr2 for(i = 5; i > 0; i--)
{ {
printf(“%d\n”, i); printf(“%d\n”, i);
i--; // expr3 }
}

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for statement
Count up or down:
● for(i = 0; i < 10; i++) // Count up from 0 to 9
● for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++) // Count up from 1 to 10
● for(i = 10; i >= 0; i--) // Countdown from 10 to 0
● for(i = 10; i > 0; i--) // Countdown from 10 to 1

Focus on the control expression and increment/decrement expression

Initialization step is only needed at the very beginning

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for statement
int i; i = 1; i is now 1
for(i = 1; i <= 2; i++) Is i <= 2? Yes. Continue
{ printf() prints i = 1
printf(“%d\n”, i); i++ i is now 2
} Is i <= 2? Yes. Continue
printf() prints i = 2
i++ i is now 3
Is i <= 2? No. Exit loop

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Pop Quiz

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for statement
Omitting expressions from for loop can have exciting results

int i;
for(i = 1; ; i++) // keeping expr2 empty
{
printf(“Hello\n”);
}

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for statement
Omitting expressions from for loop can have exciting results

int i;
for(i = 1; ; i++) // keeping expr2 empty
{
printf(“Hello\n”);
}

Results in an infinite loop

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Loop controls

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Loop controls
We can use certain keywords to manipulate loops that
are not controlling expressions
● break statement
● continue statement

These are used control exit-points and manipulate

forceful looping

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break statement

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break statement
Normal exit-points in loops
● At the beginning
● At the end
To exit the loop at any point in the loop → break statement
int i = 0;
while(1)
{
if(++i == 10) {break;} // breaks out of the infinite loop
}
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continue statement

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continue statement
● Forces the loop to iterate once
● Transfers control to a just before the end of the loop body
● Control remains inside the loop
int i;
for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
{
if(i % 2 == 0)
{
continue;
}
printf(“%d\n”, i);
}
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Pop Quiz

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continue statement
Write a program which takes sum of only positive numbers from the user

int i, num, sum = 0;

for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
This one is written
{ without the
scanf(“%d”, &num); continue statement
if(num >= 0)
{sum = sum + num;}
}
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continue statement
Write a program which takes sum of only positive numbers from the user

int i, num, sum = 0;

for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
This one is written
{ using the continue
scanf(“%d”, &num); statement
if(num < 0) {continue;}
sum = sum + num;
}
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Nested loops

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Nested loops
● Loops inside loops
● Imagine you’re doing a treasure hunt
● You are given some clues
● Each clue has multiple sub-clues
● Only when you solve every clue, you get the treasure

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 Nested loops
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++) while(i < 5)
{ {
for(j = 0; j < 5; j++) for(j = 0; j < 5; j++)
{ {
printf(“%d %d”, i, j); printf(“%d %d”, i, j);
} }
} i++;
}
Try to trace i & j 48
Pop Quiz

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Nested loops
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
for(j = 0; j < 5; j++)
{
if(j == 1)
{break;}
}
}

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Nested loops
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
for(j = 0; j < 5; j++)
{
Only the inner loop
if(j == 1)
will be broken out of
{break;}
}
}

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Reading Tasks
● C Programming - A Modern Approach | Chapter 6

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Thank You

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