Chapter 7: Problem

Solving with
Loops
SW 100: Principles of Programming and Problem Solving

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Overvie
w
• The Loop Logic Structure
• Incrementing
• Accumulating
• While/WhileEnd
• Repeat/Until
• Automatic-Counter Loop
• Nested Loops
• Indicators
• Algorithm Instructions and Flowchart
Symbols
• Recursion
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 The Loop Logic
•Structure
A third logic structure for designing decisions is
the loop structure.

• The loop logic structure is the repeating

structure.

• So, it is a computer task, that is used for Repeating a

series of instructions many times.

• Example: The Process of calculating the Total

Payment for more than Dr.Hanin
one employee. 3
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Exampl
e
Write an Algorithm that calculate the
average of 6 students grade.

Average()
1. Enter Grade1, Grade2, Grade3, Grade4, Grade5, Grade6 What about 100
2.Total = Grade1+ Grade2+Grade3+Grade4+Grade5+ students?
Grade6
3. Average = Total / 6 We need to use a
4. Print Average loop logic structure
End

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Types of Loop
Structure
•While/WhileEnd loop which repeats instructions while
a
condition is True and stops repeating when a
condition arises that is not True.

•Repeat/Until loop, which repeats instructions

while a condition is False or until a condition is
True.

•Automatic-counter loop in which a variable is

set equal to
a given number and increases in equal given
increments until it is greater than an ending
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Types of Loop
Structure
• The algorithm and the flowchart differ with each
type of loop structure.

•Several standard types of tasks are

accomplished through the use of the loop
structure.
•Two of these types are:
• counting (also called incrementing and
decrementing)
• accumulating (also called calculating a
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sum or a total) Abdulrahman
 Types of Loop
•Structure
In both tasks (counting, accumulating) a
number is added or subtracted from a
variable and the result is stored back into
the same variable.

•In each case the resultant variable is assigned

the value of zero before starting the loop 
called initializing the variable.

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Incrementing or
Decrementing
• The task of incrementing, or counting, is done by
adding a constant, such as 1 or 2, to the value of
a variable.
• Exampl
C must be initialized to zero before
e:
C=C+ starting the loop

1
• This instruction enables the programmer to count the
number of items, people, temperatures, and so on, as
part of the solution to a problem.

• Decrement C=C-
example: Dr.Hanin
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Accumulati
ng
• Summing a group of numbers is a process of
accumulating is similar to incrementing, except a
variable instead of a constant is added to another
variable, which holds the value of the sum or total.
• The instruction for accumulating is the following:
Sum = Sum + Variable or S = S + V
• For example, the instruction to find total sales would
be
TotalSales = TotalSales + Sales
Sum and TotalSales must be
initialized
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 Accumulati
•ng
Calculating the product of a series of numbers is
similar to finding the sum of a series of numbers
with two exceptions.

 First, the plus sign is replaced by the

multiplication sign (*).
Second, the product variable must be initialized to 1
instead of 0.

• For example:
Product=1
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Types of Loop
Structure
1. While/WhileEnd loop
2. Repeat/Until loop
3. Automatic-counter
loop

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While/
WhileEnd
This type of loop tells the computer that
while the condition is True, repeat all
instructions between the While and the
WhileEnd.

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While/
WhileEnd
The symbol used for the
While part of the
instruction is the
diamond, the symbol for a
decision.

This flowchart shows only

part of an algorithm, on-
page connectors are used.
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While/
WhileEnd
• At the beginning of the While/WhileEnd loop, the
program processes the condition in order to decide
whether to execute the loop instructions.

• When the resultant of the condition is True, the

complete set of instructions will be executed, and then
the computer will go back to the beginning of the loop
and process the condition again.

• The loop will repeat until the resultant of the condition

is False.
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While/
WhileEnd
• Use the While/WhileEnd structure when:
you do not know the number of times the
instructions will be repeated,
or if there are cases when the instructions in the loop
should not be processed.

• Examples of such cases are:

when you are entering information on clients and
you don’t know the number of clients;
when you are finding the total amount of sales for
the day and you don’t know the number of sales.
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While/WhileEnd
Example
Problem: Create the algorithm and the
flowchart to find the average age of all the
students in a class.

How many
While/WhileEnd
students??

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Average Age
of a Class

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While/
WhileEnd
• An age must be entered before the loop so that the
condition has data to use to get a resultant.
->This is called a primer Read because it gives the
While/WhileEnd loop a valid value for the variable Age
in order for the conditions to be true the first time
through the loop.

• The last age should be zero. This zero is called a trip

value, or a flag.
->It allows the value of Age to control when to stop
the looping process and continue with the rest of the
solution. Dr.Hanin 18
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Types of Loop
Structure
1. While/WhileEnd loop
2. Repeat/Until loop
3. Automatic-counter
loop

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Repeat/
Until
This type of loop tells the computer to repeat
the set of instructions between the Repeat and
the Until, until a condition is True.

Algorithm Format

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Flowchart Diagram of
Repeat/Until

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While/WhileEnd vs
Repeat/Until
While/WhileEnd Repeat/Until
the program continues to loop as long the program stops the loop process when
as the resultant of the condition is the resultant of the condition is True
True
the condition is processed at the The condition is processed at the end.
beginning The instructions in the loop are processed
entirely at least once.
you must initialize the data so that the you can set the operands of the conditions
resultant of the condition is True the anywhere within the loop since the
first time through the loop. Otherwise, condition is processed at the end.
the loop instructions will never be
processed.

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Repeat/
Until
• Use the Repeat/Until structure
when you do not know the number of
times the instructions will be executed,

when you know they will be executed at

least once,

or when you do not know the condition for

repeating until after the instructions in the
loop are processed.
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Repeat/Until
loop
Average Age
of a Class

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Perfect Square number problem

How to check if the number is perfect square or not???

If the square root of the number is integer number
e.g) 4 , 9 , 16, 25 , 36 ,……. So on
Types of Loop
Structure
1. While/WhileEnd loop
2. Repeat/Until loop
3. Automatic-counter
loop

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Automatic-Counter
Loop
• This type of loop increments or decrements a variable each
time the loop is repeated

• The programmer uses a variable as a counter that starts

counting at a specified number and increments the variable
each time the loop is processed.

• The beginning value, the ending value, and the increment

value may be constants, variables, or expressions
(calculations).

• Use it when you know from the start the number of times
the loop will be executed .
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Automatic-Counter
Loop
The form of the algorithm for the automatic-counter
loop is the following:

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 Flowchart of
Automatic- Counter
•Loop
Counter is the variable
used for the counter,
• Begin is the beginning
value,
• End is the ending value
• StepValue is the value by
which the counter is to be
incremented
• To decrement, StepValue
needs to be a negative
number and Begin must be
greater than End. Dr.Hanin 29
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Automatic-Counter
Loop
When incrementing the counter, remember the
following rules:
1. When the computer executes the Loop
instruction, it sets the counter equal to the
beginning number.

2. When the computer executes the Loop-

End, it increments the counter.

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Automatic-Counter
Loop
3. When the counter is less than or equal
to the ending number
 the processing continues at the instruction that
follows the Loop instruction.

4. When the counter is greater than the

ending number
 Stop

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Automatic-Counter
Loop
When decrementing the counter , remember the
following rules:
1. The counter is decremented at the end of the
loop.

2. When the counter is greater than or equal to

the ending value, the loop continues.

3. Step value needs to be a negative number

and begin must be greater than end
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Automatic-Counter Loop
Example
Create the algorithm and the flowchart to
find the average age of the 12 students in
a class.

How many Automatic-

students?? 12 Counter Loop

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 Automatic-Counter Loop
•Example
The counter begins at 1 and is incremented by 1
until the counter is greater than 12.
• When the increment value is left out, the computer
assumes the value to be 1.
• When the counter increases to a value greater than
12, the average age is calculated and printed.
• Also notice the absence of the primer Read. The primer
Read is not necessary because there is no trip value
needed since the number of students is known.

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While/WhileEnd Loop Equivalent
of the Automatic-Counter Loop

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While/WhileEnd Loop Equivalent of the
Automatic-Counter Loop (Av of age 12 student
example)
Repeat/Until Loop Equivalent
of the Automatic-Counter Loop

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Repeat/Until Loop Equivalent of the
Automatic-Counter Loop (Av of age 12 student
example)
The equivalent flowcharts of the
While/WhileEnd and Repeat/Until loops
• Note that both these loops require a counter
instruction and initialization of the counter

• The decision for both loops involves the use of the

ending value The automatic-counter loop takes care of
these instructions automatically.

• The While/WhileEnd loop executes the test at the

beginning of the loop, and the Repeat/Until executes
it at the end.

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The equivalent flowcharts of the
While/WhileEnd and Repeat/Until loops
• When Begin is greater than End at the beginning of
the loop, the While/WhileEnd will not execute any
internal instructions, whereas the Repeat/Until will
execute the instructions once.

• When you know the starting and ending values

of the counter and you need a counter to run
through a group of instructions multiple times, the
use of the automatic counter loop is preferred.

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Decision Equivalents to Automatic-
Counter Loop

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Nested
Loops

Loops can be nested like decisions can.

Each loop must be nested inside the loop just

outside it.

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Nested
loops
Examples
Outer loop
(outer loop
Inner loop
(Inner loop
counter) counter)
1 1

1 2

1 3

2 1

2 2

2 3

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Nested loops
Examples
Outer loop Inner loop
(outer loop (Inner loop
counter) counter)
1 1

1 2

1 3

2 1

2 2

2 3

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Example

Draw flow chart for this problem: print all prime numbers between 2 and the number has been entered from
user
Recursio
n
• Another type of loop structure is recursion.
• Recursion occurs when a module or a function calls
itself.
• The condition that ends the loop must be within the
module.

• Factorial(N)
• An example of a recursive function that calculates a
factorial number such as 5! (5! = 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1)
• Notice that Factorial(N) continues to call itself until
N=1. There must be a way Dr.Hanin
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Recursion
example

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Recursion
example

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Execution of a Recursion
Problem

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