Looping statements in C

for, while and do while

 The Loop Control Structure
 So far we have used either a sequential or a decision control
instruction. ( if –else, switch – case)
 the executions were carried out in a fixed order
 an appropriate set of instructions were executed depending upon the
outcome of the condition being tested Exactly once
 The versatility of the computer lies in its ability to perform a set of
instructions repeatedly.
 This involves repeating some portion of the program either a specified
number of times or until a particular condition is being satisfied.
 This repetitive operation is done through a loop control instruction.
 The Loop Control Structure
 Every programming language has the feature to instruct to do such
repetitive tasks with the help of certain form of statements.
 The process of repeatedly executing a collection of statement is called
looping.
 The statements gets executed many number of times based on the
condition.
 But if the condition is given in such a logic that the repetition continues
any number of times with no fixed condition to stop looping those
statements, then this type of looping is called infinite looping.
 The Loop Control Structure
 A loop statement allows us to execute a statement or group of
statements multiple times.

Figure – Flowchart of Looping

 Branching vs Loops

T Statement T
Condition Statement
list Condition
list

F F
 Types of Loop
 There are three methods by way of which we can repeat a part of a program.
They are:
(a) Using a for statement
(b) Using a while statement
(c) Using a do-while statement

 It is often the case in programming that you want to do something a fixed

number of times
Ex. calculate gross salaries of ten different persons,
Ex. Convert temperatures from centigrade to Fahrenheit for 15 different
cities.
 The for loop
The for allows us to specify three things about a loop in a
single line:
 Setting a loop counter to an initial value.

 Testing the loop counter to determine whether its value has

reached the number of repetitions desired.
 Increasing the value of loop counter each time the program
segment within the loop has been executed.

The general format for a for loop

for(Initialization_action; Condition; Condition_update){

statement_list;
}
 The for Loop
The syntax of a for loop in C programming language is −

for ( init; condition; increment ) {

statement(s);
}
 The for Loop : flow of control
1 . The init step is executed first, and only once.
This step allows you to declare and initialize any loop control variables.

2. Next, the condition is evaluated.

If it is true, the body of the loop is executed.
If it is false, the body of the loop does not execute and the flow of control
jumps to the next statement just after the 'for' loop.

3. After the body of the 'for' loop executes, the flow of control jumps back up to the
increment/modication statement.
This statement allows you to update any loop control variables.

4. The condition is now evaluated again. If it is true, the loop executes and the
process repeats itself (body of loop, then increment step, and then again
condition). After the condition becomes false, the 'for' loop terminates.
Working of for loop in C
1 int main() {
2 int i, sum = 0;
3 for(i = 0; i < 11; i++) {
4 printf(“%d”, i);
5 sum = sum + i;
6 }
7 printf(“%d”, sum);
8 return 0;
9 }
 The for loop
for(control-variable initialization; continuation condition; increment/decrement-
control variable ) {
// body of loop
}
e
}
Code to display integers from 1 -10
#include<stdio.h>
Note: The curly brackets { } , can be
skipped if the for loop has only 1
statement.
int main() { If the brackets are missing then
int i; ONLY very next statement will be
iterated
for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
printf("%d\n", i);
}
Try following now:

1 Print numbers from 10 to 1

2 Print numbers from n to m. n and m are accepted from user.
3 Print all numbers divisible by ‘n’ , between 1 to 1000. ‘n’ accepted from
user
4 Print sum of numbers from 1 to 10
5. Print Alphabets from A – Z, a- z, z-a, Z-A
 Print alphabets from ‘A’ – ‘Z’
include<stdio.h>
int main() {
char i;
for(i = 'A'; i <= 'Z'; i++) {
printf("%c\n", i);
}
return 0;
}
 What will be the output?
include<stdio.h>
int main() {
char i; OUTPUT?
for(i = 'A'; i <= 'Z'; i++) { *NOTE THE CHANGE*
printf("%d\n", i);
}
return 0;
}
 Example 1: For – Simple interest

/* Calculation of simple interest for 3 sets of p, n and r */

void main ( ) {
int p, t, count ;
float r, si ;
for ( count = 1 ; count <= 3 ; count = count + 1 ) {
printf ( "Enter values of p, t, and r " ) ;
scanf ( "%d %d %f", &p, &t, &r ) ;
si = p * n * r / 100 ;
printf ( "Simple Interest = Rs.%f\n", si ) ;
}
}
 Example 2: For - Factorial

Factorial of n is n*(n-1)*(n-2)*...2*1

int i, n, f=1;
printf(“Enter a number to find factorial”);
scanf(“%d”,&n);
for (i=1; i<=n; ++i) {
f = f* i;
}
printf(“The factorial of %d is %d ”,n,f);
 Additional features of for loop
The comma operator
We can give several statements separated by commas in place of
“Initialization”, “condition”, and “updating”.

Example
for (fact=1, i=1; i<=10; i++)
fact = fact * i;

for (sum=0, i=1; i<=N; ++i)

sum = sum + i * i;
 We can use expression in assignment statements of initialization and update
section
Example:
for( x = ( m + n ) / 2 ; x > 0 ; x = x/2 )

 We can omit one or more sections

Example:
int m=5;
for ( ; m != 100 ; ) {
statements;
m=m+5;

}
for(expr1; expr2; expr3)
Most commonly, expr1 and expr3 are assignments or function calls and
expr2 is a relational expression.

Any of the three parts can be omitted, although the semicolons must
remain.

If expr1 or expr3 is omitted, it is simply dropped from the expansion.

If the test, expr2, is not present, it is taken as permanently true

 Break Statement in C

• Break statement are used for terminates any type of loop e.g, while loop, do while loop or for loop.
• The break statement terminates the loop body immediately and passes control to the next statement
after the loop.
• In case of inner loops, it terminates the control of inner loop only.
 Continue Statement in C

• The continue statement in C programming works somewhat

like the break statement.

• Instead of forcing termination, it forces the next iteration of

the loop to take place, skipping any code in between.

• In a for loop, it will force the program to update (increment

or decrement) the loop variable and then check the
condition immediately.

• For the while and do...while loops, continue statement

causes the program control to pass to the conditional tests.
 Continue in a loop

The continue statement in a loop will force the program to

check the loop condition immediately.

do {
printf(“Will you pass this exam?”);
scanf(“%c”,&ans);

if (and != ‘Y’ && ans != ‘y’) continue;

printf(“Great?”);

break;

} while (true);

....

24
 break/ continue
int i = 0; int i = 0; int i = 0;
for(; ;) { for(; i <= 10;) { for(; ; i =i + 1) {
if(i > 10) printf(“%d”, i); if(i > 10)
break; i = i +1; break;
else } else
continue; continue;
printf(“%d”, i); printf(“%d”, i);
i = i +1;
} }
Write a code to keep accepting numbers and adding them till the sum
exceeds 100
include<stdio.h>
int main() {
int i, sum,n;
for(i = 1, sum = 0; ; i++){
scanf("%d", &n);
sum += n;
if(sum <= 100)
continue;
else
break;
}
printf("Total numbers read = %d\nSum = %d", i, sum);
}
 Nested loops (loop in a loop)
The syntax for a nested for loop statement in C is as follows −

for (init; condition; increment) {

for (init; condition; increment) {
statement(s);
}
statement(s);
}

27
 Nested loops (loop in a loop)
In Nested loop one loop is place within another loop body.
When we need to repeated loop body itself n number of times use nested loops.
Nested loops can be design upto 255 blocks.

printf(“%d%d”,a,b); //a=4,b=7
b
for (i = 0; i < a; i++){
for (j=0; j<b; j++) { *******
printf(“*”);
} a
*******
printf(“\n”); *******
} *******

28
 Nested loops example
b

*
int a,b;
Printf(“Enter two values”);
a **
scanf(“%d%d”,&a,&b); ***
****
for (i = 0; i < a; i++) {
for (j = 0; j < b; j++) {
if (j > i)
break;
printf(“*”);
}
printf(“\n”);
}
 Nested loops example

int a,b; b

scanf(“%d%d”,&a,&b); *************
a ************
for (int i = 0; i < a; i++) { ***********
**********
for (int j=0; j<b; j++) {
if (j < i)
printf(“ ”);
else
printf(“*”);
}
printf(“\n”);
}
 Nested loops example
int a,i,j;
scanf(“%d”,a);
*
for (i = 0; i < a; i++) {
for (j=0; j<a; j++) { ***
if (j < a-i) *****
printf(" ");
else printf("*"); *******
}
*********

for (j=0; j<a; j++) { ***********

if (j > i)
break;
printf("*");
}
printf(“\n”);
}
Comparison with Python ‘for’
#Syntax of for statement in Python # Example of for loop in Python
for i in range(start, stop, step): for i in range(1, 11, 1):
statement1 print(i)
statement2

/* C Code Segment*/
int start , stop = 11, step = 1;
for(start = 1; start < stop; start = start +1)
printf(“%d”, start);
Syntax:

for(initialization; condition; modification) {

---
block of statements
---
}

for(expr1; expr2; expr3) {

Grammatically, the three components of a for loop are

expressions
Empty and infinite loop
for (; ; );
for (i = 0; i < 100000; i++);

for (i = 1; i > 0; i++) {

loop body
}
 Write C Program using for loop:
1. Write a C program to find factorial

2. Write a C Program to reverse a given number. (For e.g., user entered 54823 so its reverse is 32845)

3. Write a C Program to find product of digits of a number. (For e.g., user entered 2534, product of
digits is 2 x 5 x 3 x 4 = 120 and user should not enter 0 as a digit

4. Sum of series :

x + x/1 + x/2! + x/3! …x/n!

Write Code to get the following output:
1 #include<stdio.h>
12
int main() {
123 int i,j;
1234 for(i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
12345 for(j = 1; j <= i; j++)
printf("%d", j);
printf("\n");
}
return 0;
}
Write Code to get the following output:
1
12
123
1234
12345
Examples: