6 Control Structures

Introduction to Programming 1 1
 Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the student should be able to:

 Use decision control structures (if, else, switch) which allows

selection of specific sections of code to be executed
 Use repetition control structures (while, do-while, for) which
allow executing specific sections of code a number of times

Use branching statements (break, continue, return) which
allows redirection of program flow

Introduction to Programming 1 2
 Control Structures
 Control structures
 allows us to change the ordering of how the statements in our
programs are executed

 Two types of Control Structures

 decision control structures
 allows us to select specific sections of code to be executed
 repetition control structures
 allows us to execute specific sections of the code a number of times

Introduction to Programming 1 3
 Decision Control Structures
 Decision control structures
 Java statements that allows us to select and execute specific blocks
of code while skipping other sections

 Types:
 if-statement
 if-else-statement
 If-else if-statement

Introduction to Programming 1 4
 if-statement

if-statement
 specifies that a statement (or block of code) will be executed if and
only if a certain boolean statement is true.

 if-statement has the form:

if( boolean_expression )
statement;
or
if( boolean_expression ){
statement1;
statement2;
}
 where,
 boolean_expression is either a boolean expression or boolean variable.

Introduction to Programming 1 5
if-statement Flowchart

Introduction to Programming 1 6
 Example 1
int grade = 68;
if( grade > 60 )
System.out.println("Congratulations!");

Introduction to Programming 1 7
 Example 2
int grade = 68;
if( grade > 60 ){
System.out.println("Congratulations!");
System.out.println("You passed!");
}

Introduction to Programming 1 8
 Coding Guidelines
1. The boolean_expression part of a statement should
evaluate to a boolean value. That means that the execution
of the condition should either result to a value of true or a
false.
2. Indent the statements inside the if-block.
For example,
if( boolean_expression ){
//statement1;
//statement2;
}

Introduction to Programming 1 9
 if-else statement
 if-else statement
 used when we want to execute a certain statement if a condition is
true, and a different statement if the condition is false.

 if-else statement has the form:

if( boolean_expression ){
statement1;
statement2;
. . .
}
else{
statement3;
statement4;
. . .
}

Introduction to Programming 1 10
 Flowchart

Introduction to Programming 1 11
 Example 1
int grade = 68;

if( grade > 60 )

System.out.println("Congratulations!");
else
System.out.println("Sorry you failed");

Introduction to Programming 1 12
 Example 2
int grade = 68;

if( grade > 60 ){

System.out.println("Congratulations!");
System.out.println("You passed!");
}
else{
System.out.println("Sorry you failed");
}

Introduction to Programming 1 13
 Coding Guidelines
1. To avoid confusion, always place the statement or
statements of an if or if-else block inside brackets {}.
2. You can have nested if-else blocks. This means that you can
have other if-else blocks inside another if-else block.
For example,
if( boolean_expression ){
if( boolean_expression ){
//some statements here
}
}
else{
//some statements here
}

Introduction to Programming 1 14
 if-else-else if statement
 The statement in the else-clause of an if-else block can be
another if-else structures.
 This cascading of structures allows us to make more
complex selections.
 The statement has the form:
if( boolean_expression1 )
statement1;
else if( boolean_expression2 )
statement2;
else
statement3;

Introduction to Programming 1 15
 Flowchart

Introduction to Programming 1 16
 Example
int grade = 68;

if( grade > 90 ){

System.out.println("Very good!");
}
else if( grade > 60 ){
System.out.println("Very good!");
}
else{
System.out.println("Sorry you failed");
}

Introduction to Programming 1 17
 Common Errors
1. The condition inside the if-statement does not evaluate to a
boolean value. For example,
//WRONG
int number = 0;
if( number ){
//some statements here
}
The variable number does not hold a boolean value.

2. Writing elseif instead of else if.

Introduction to Programming 1 18
 Common Errors
3. Using = instead of == for comparison.
For example,
//WRONG
int number = 0;
if( number = 0 ){
//some statements here
}

This should be written as,

//CORRECT
int number = 0;
if( number == 0 ){
//some statements here
}

Introduction to Programming 1 19
 Sample Program
1 public class Grade {
2 public static void main( String[] args )
3 {
4 double grade = 92.0;
5 if( grade >= 90 ){
6 System.out.println( "Excellent!" );
7 }
8 else if( (grade < 90) && (grade >= 80)){
9 System.out.println("Good job!" );
10 }
11 else if( (grade < 80) && (grade >= 60)){
12 System.out.println("Study harder!" );
13 }
14 else{
System.out.println("Sorry, you failed.");
15

16 }
17 }
18 }

Introduction to Programming 1 20
 switch-statement
 switch
 allows branching on multiple outcomes.
 switch statement has the form:
switch( switch_expression ){
case case_selector1:
statement1;//
statement2;//block 1
break;
case case_selector2:
statement1;//
statement2;//block 2
break;
:
default:
statement1;//
statement2;//block n
}

Introduction to Programming 1 21
 switch-statement
 where,
 switch_expression
 is an integer or character expression
 case_selector1, case_selector2 and so on,
 are unique integer or character constants.

Introduction to Programming 1 22
 switch-statement
 When a switch is encountered,
 Java first evaluates the switch_expression, and jumps to the case
whose selector matches the value of the expression.
 The program executes the statements in order from that point on
until a break statement is encountered, skipping then to the first
statement after the end of the switch structure.
 If none of the cases are satisfied, the default block is executed. Take
note however, that the default part is optional.

Introduction to Programming 1 23
 switch-statement
 NOTE:
 Unlike with the if statement, the multiple statements are executed in
the switch statement without needing the curly braces.
 When a case in a switch statement has been matched, all the
statements associated with that case are executed. Not only that,
the statements associated with the succeeding cases are also
executed.
 To prevent the program from executing statements in the
subsequent cases, we use a break statement as our last statement.

Introduction to Programming 1 24
 Flowchart

Introduction to Programming 1 25
 Example
1 public class Grade {
2 public static void main( String[] args )
3 {
4 int grade = 92;
5 switch(grade){
6 case 100:
7 System.out.println( "Excellent!" );
8 break;
9 case 90:
10 System.out.println("Good job!" );
11 break;
12 case 80:
13 System.out.println("Study harder!" );
14 break;
15 default:
16 System.out.println("Sorry, you failed.");
17 }
18 }
19 }

Introduction to Programming 1 26
 Coding Guidelines
1. Deciding whether to use an if statement or a switch
statement is a judgment call. You can decide which to use,
based on readability and other factors.
2. An if statement can be used to make decisions based on
ranges of values or conditions, whereas a switch statement
can make decisions based only on a single integer or
character value. Also, the value provided to each case
statement must be unique.

Introduction to Programming 1 27
Repetition Control Structures
 Repetition control structures
 are Java statements that allows us to execute specific blocks of
code a number of times.

 Types:
 while-loop
 do-while loop
 for-loop

Introduction to Programming 1 28
 while-loop
 while loop
 is a statement or block of statements that is repeated as long as
some condition is satisfied.

 while loop has the form:

while( boolean_expression ){
statement1;
statement2;
. . .
}

 The statements inside the while loop are executed as long as the
boolean_expression evaluates to true.

Introduction to Programming 1 29
 Example 1
int x = 0;

while (x<10) {
System.out.println(x);
x++;
}

Introduction to Programming 1 30
 Example 2

//infinite loop
while(true)
System.out.println(“hello”);

Introduction to Programming 1 31
 Example 3
//no loops
// statement is not even executed
while (false)
System.out.println(“hello”);

Introduction to Programming 1 32
 do-while-loop
 do-while loop
 is similar to the while-loop
 statements inside a do-while loop are executed several times as
long as the condition is satisfied
 The main difference between a while and do-while loop:
 the statements inside a do-while loop are executed at least once.

 do-while loop has the form:

do{
statement1;
statement2;
. . .
}while( boolean_expression );

Introduction to Programming 1 33
 Example 1

int x = 0;

do {
System.out.println(x);
x++;
}while (x<10);

Introduction to Programming 1 34
 Example 2

//infinite loop
do{
System.out.println(“hello”);
} while (true);

Introduction to Programming 1 35
 Example 3
//one loop
// statement is executed once
do
System.out.println(“hello”);
while (false);

Introduction to Programming 1 36
 Coding Guidelines
1. Common programming mistakes when using the do-while
loop is forgetting to write the semi-colon after the while
expression.
do{
...
}while(boolean_expression)//WRONG->forgot semicolon;

2. Just like in while loops, make sure that your do-while loops
will terminate at some point

Introduction to Programming 1 37
 for-loop
 for loop
 allows execution of the same code a number of times.

 for loop has the form:

for(InitializationExpression;LoopCondition;StepExpression)
{
statement1;
statement2;
. . .
}
 where,
 InitializationExpression -initializes the loop variable.
 LoopCondition - compares the loop variable to some limit value.
 StepExpression - updates the loop variable.

Introduction to Programming 1 38
 Example
int i;
for( i = 0; i < 10; i++ ){
System.out.println(i);
}

The code shown above is equivalent to the following while
loop.
int i = 0;
while( i < 10 ){
System.out.print(i);
i++;
}

Introduction to Programming 1 39