Designing and Developing Object-Oriented Computer

Programmes
Topic 4: Programming Structures (2)

© NCC Education Limited

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Scope and Coverage

This topic will cover:

Repetition Structures
For Loop
While Loop
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Learning Outcomes

By the end of this topic students will be able to:

•Make use of iteration in C#;
•Apply conditional logic to unbounded loops;
•Understand the role of repetition on shaping program
flow;
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Repetition Structures - 1
• In the last topic we looked at the power of selection
structures to shape the flow of execution through a
program.
• These permit us branches that we can follow, or
not, to have the program respond to the information
it has at run-time.
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Repetition Structures - 2
• We often don’t know at design time what the state
of individual variables in a program might be and so
we make use of these structures to handle
uncertainty.
• However, often we don’t want to simply choose
between two or more course of action – sometimes
we want to repeat the same course of action
several times.
• This is where iteration enters the picture.
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The For Loop - 1

• The For Loop is an example of a structure known
as a bounded loop.
• Bounded loops repeat a certain section of code a
known number of times – perhaps not a value
known when we write the code, but known when
the loop is reached in the running program.
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The For Loop - 2

• For example, we might have a textbox that contains a
number, and that number will determine how many times a
piece of code should execute.
• We don’t know when we write the program what people will
type into the textbox, but when the loop triggers we’ll know
what’s in there.
• Bounded loops work on a counter, which we compare
against a condition to see if we should still be repeating the
code.
• An individual execution of the code that belongs to a loop
is called an iteration of that loop.
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The For Loop - 3

• The For Loop is the most complicated
programming structure we have looked at yet.
• It has the following basic structure:

for (initialisation; continuation; upkeep)

{
// Code to repeat
}
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The For Loop - 4

• When our program reaches the for loop, these special
sections are executed in a particular order:
1. Initialisation occurs at the point we reach the loop, and never
again. We use this to set up whatever counters we plan to use
to track the number of times we’ve repeated.
2. Continuation is checked at the start of each iteration of the loop.
Making use of the comparison operators we saw in the last
chapter, we check to see if our counter meets some threshold.
If it does, the loop continues. If it doesn’t, the loop ends.
3. Upkeep is executed at the end of each iteration of the loop, and
is used to update the counters we’re using.
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The For Loop - 5

• Let’s look at this with an example – we’re going to
provide two textboxes (txtBase and txtPower) in a
program, and we’re going to compute the power of one
to the other when we press a button (cmdCalculate).
• To do this, we take a number and multiply it by itself the
number of times indicated by the power.
• 2² is calculated as 2 x 2 for a total of four. 2³ is 2 x 2 x
2 for a total of eight.
• This is a perfect example of a situation in which we might
need to make use of a loop to handle a calculation.
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The For Loop - 6

• First of all, let’s look at the pseudocode of this process:

1.Get the base number

2.Get the power to which the base number is to be raised
3.Set the current total to the base number
4.Set the number of times to repeat to be the power minus
one
5.Repeat the following number of times equal to the number
of times to repeat
a. Set the total to be the total times the base number
6. Output the result
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The For Loop - 7

• Putting that together in code would give us the
following:
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The For Loop - 8

• We’re looking here for two raised to the power of
five. Running through the initial setup of our code
will give us the following set of variables:
baseNum 2
powerNum 5
Ans 2
numRepeats 4
Counter 0
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The For Loop - 9

• Let’s look at that loop in more detail:
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The For Loop - 10

• The first thing that we do when we enter the loop is
create an integer called counter, and set it to 0.
• This happens once, and never again.
• When the loop has finished, the counter variable
will disappear – it exists only as long as this loop is
running.
• That wouldn’t have been true if we created it in the
same place as the other variables, but as long as
we don’t need it later it’s safe to declare it here.
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The For Loop - 11

• Next, we evaluate the condition of the loop – here, the
format is exactly the same as with the if statements we
saw in the previous chapter.
• To begin with our counter is zero, so the continuation
condition of the loop is ‘is the counter less than the
numRepeats’. Or, ‘is zero less than four?’.
• It is, and so the code within the braces triggers. This
then resolves down into:
ans = 2 * 2;
• At the end of the first iteration of the loop, ans is 4.
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The For Loop - 12

• We then move into the upkeep phase, and this
adds one to the counter.
• After the first execution of the loop, this is what our
variables contain (changes marked in red):
baseNum 2
powerNum 5
Ans 4
numRepeats 4
Counter 1
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The For Loop - 13

• Because it is a loop, the program now goes back to the
continuation condition and asks ‘is one less than four?’
It’s still true, and so the code triggers one more time,
changing Ans to 8.
• At the end of that, upkeep is triggered which increases
the counter by one again:
baseNum 2
powerNum 5
Ans 8
numRepeats 4
Counter 2
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The For Loop - 14

• This continues until counter is increased to four in

the upkeep.
• At that point, we go back to the continuation
condition and ask ‘Is four less than four?’ It’s not
and so the loop terminates and control is handed
back to the line of code that follows it.
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The While Loop - 1

• There is a second kind of loop we often need to use – the
unbounded loop.
• The bounded loop works on the assumption we know how
many times to repeat, but that’s not always true.
• Sometimes we only know we should stop repeating when a
thing happens.
• For example, we might ask our user ‘do you want to
continue?’ and have no idea how many times they’ll say
yes.
• The unbounded loop permits us to loop based only on a
condition, rather than a counter.
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The While Loop - 2

• Both kinds of loops can be used for all kinds of
situations.
• The For loop though has fixed sections for counter
management and if you wish to use a While loop to
handle bounded conditions you’ll need to do all the
continuation and upkeep calculations yourself.
• It’s best to get into the habit of using the right tool
for the right purpose.
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The While Loop - 3

• Here, we’re going to change our code a little.
• Instead of asking up front how many times we
should raise to a power, we’re going to ask the
user.
• For that, we’ll also need to look at how to provide
the user with a ‘yes/no’ dialog instead of a simple
message box.
• When they press ‘Yes’ we’ll raise to another power.
• When they press ‘no’ we’ll output the result.
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The While Loop - 4

• This is the code we will need;
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The While Loop - 5

• The DialogResult is what we use to determine which
button was pressed – you can explore what
MessageBoxButtons offers if you want to see other
options for presenting these confirmatory dialogs to
users.
• We ask the user what we should do, and then we enter
a loop – note there’s no counter here, we continue until
the user presses something other than the yes button.
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The While Loop - 6

• The while loop checks this continuation clause right
at the very start, so we need to have it prepared for
when it checks.
• Inside the loop, we ask the question again and
again until the user decides to stop.
• We don’t know when that’s going to happen.
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The While Loop - 7

• Note here the code is a little clumsy, repeating the
same MessageBox code twice.
• There’s a variation of this called the do while loop.
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The While Loop - 8

• For unbounded loops, if we want to iterate zero or
more times, we use a while loop.
• If we want to iterate one or more, we use a do-
while loop.
• Which is most appropriate will depend on your
specific scenario.
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Conclusion - 1
• Loops have just put a lot of additional power into
your hands – structurally they are similar to the
selections we looked at in the previous chapter, but
provide additional opportunities for seriously
impacting on the flow of your project.
• As you can see in the example above, they can
even be placed inside each other – you can have if
statements inside a for statement, for statements
within a while loop, and any combination besides.
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Conclusion - 2
• This is called nesting and we’ll have cause to see
lots of examples of this as time goes by.
• In the meantime, mastering loops is going to offer
you a much greater opportunity to create
meaningfully interesting projects – that’s especially
true when we come to look at arrays in a couple of
chapters’ time.
Topic 4 – Programming Structures (2)

Any Questions?