CS 114-Fundamentals of Programming

Loops in C language
Asma Majeed

1
 Introduction to Loops
Agenda
To be followed in today’s lecture
While

Do while

For

Nested Loops
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loop or iteration
• In a program, the repetition structure directs the computer to repeat a
set of instructions until some conditions are met
• Once the condition is met, the repetition should stop
• Repetition is also referred to as loop or iteration
• Loops are used in programming to repeat a specific block until some
end condition is met. There are three loops in C programming:
• while loop (pre-test)

• do...while loop (post-test)

• for loop (pre-test)

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 Looping Statements

• Looping statements allow the program to repeat a section of code

• any specific number of times
• Or
• until some condition occurs

• For example, loops are used to count the number of words in a document, or
• to count the number of accounts that have past-due balances.

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 Two types of Repetition
1. Counter-controlled repetition
is sometimes called definite repetition because we know in advance exactly
how many times the loop will be executed

2. Sentinel-controlled repetition
is sometimes called indefinite repetition because it’s not known in advance
how many times the loop will be executed.

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while Statement
• The general form of a while statement is:
while (condition)
{
statement;
}
• The program will repeatedly execute the statement inside the while until the
condition becomes false (0).
• If the condition is initially false, the statement will not be executed

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Example of a while statement:

while (i < n) /* controlling expression */

{
i = i * 2; /* loop body */

}
• When a while statement is executed, the controlling expression is
evaluated first.

• If its value is nonzero (true), the loop body is executed and the
expression is tested again.

• The process continues until the controlling expression eventually has the
value zero
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Flowchart of while loop

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Are you familiar with this sequence??

1 1 2 3 5 8

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 Fibonacci sequence
1
1
2=1+1
3=1+2
5=2+3
..
..
..
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 Fibonacci sequence

• In general

• In C style

• In C code, the equation is expressed as:

next_number = current_number + old_number;
• We want to loop until our current term is 100 or larger. The while loop
while (current_number < 100)

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Fundamentals of computer programming 12
Exercises cont.…
• Print a table of squares. E.g
Enter number of entries in table: 5
1 1
2 4
3 9
4 16
5 25

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Exercises cont.…
• Print all the powers of number 2 till the value is 64

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Exercises cont.…
• Find next x multiples of a given number. X should also be
user input.

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break Statement
• Loops can be exited at any point through the use of a break statement.

• Suppose we want to add a series of numbers, but we don’t know how

many numbers are to be added together.

• We need some way of letting the program know that we have reached
the end of our list.

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 Infinite loop

• Note that the while statement begins with:

while (1) {
}
• The program will loop forever because the while will exit only when the
expression 1 is 0.
• The only way to exit this loop is through a break statement.

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Break in while loop

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 Example: break in while loop
int total;
int item; total+=item;
printf(“total%d \n”,total);
int main(){ }
total=0; printf(“final total %d \n”,total);
while(1){ return 0;
printf(“Enter 1 to add or 0 to stop\n”); }
scanf(“%d”,item); }

If (item==0)
break;

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continue Statement
• The continue statement is very similar to the break statement

• except that instead of terminating the loop

• continue starts re-executing the body of the loop from the top

• Lets modify the previous program to total only numbers larger than 0

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Fundamentals of computer programming 22
 int total; if (item<0){
int item; ++minus_items;
int minus_items; continue;
int main(){ }
total=0; minus_items=0; total+=item;
while(1){ printf(“total%d \n”,total);
printf(“Enter 1 to add or 0 to }
stop\n”); printf(“final total %d \n”,total);
scanf(“%d”,item);
printf(“with %d –ve items
omitted”,minus_items);
If (item==0) return 0;
break; }

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 Repetition Structure
do - while
do while

CS 110 Fundamentals of Computer Programming

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The do-while loop
• Similar to while loop
• Must execute at least one time (test is at the bottom)
• Has format:
do {

} while (condition) ; // A semi colon is placed after while statement in do-while

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• When a do statement is executed, the loop body is executed first, then
the controlling expression is evaluated.

• If the value of the expression is nonzero, the loop body is executed again
and then the expression is evaluated once more.

• The do statement is often indistinguishable from the while statement.

• The only difference is that the body of a do statement is always executed

at least once.

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Fundamentals of computer programming 27
Simple Rules
• while and do-while good for when you don’t know how many times you
want to repeat the loop

• All loops must finish, or they become infinite loops

• All loops must have a test to continue, or they become infinite loops

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Simple Rules
• It’s a good idea to use braces in all do statements, whether or not they’re
needed, because a do statement without braces can easily be mistaken
for a while statement:
do
printf("T minus %d and counting\n", i--);
while (i > 0);
• A careless reader might think that the word while was the beginning of a
while statement.

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 Example
• The numdigits.c program calculates the number of digits in an integer
entered by the user:
Enter a nonnegative integer: 60
The number has 2 digit(s).
• The program will divide the user’s input by 10 repeatedly until it
becomes 0; the number of divisions performed is the number of digits.
• Writing this loop as a do statement is better than using a while
statement, because every integer—even 0—has at least one digit

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Exercise:
• Given an amount of money (less than $1.00), compute the number of quarters, dimes,
nickels, and pennies needed.
• A leap year is any year divisible by 4, unless the year is divisible by 100, but not 400.
Write a program to tell if a year is a leap year

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Exercise:
• Finding Average grades of multiple classes
–We would like a program to compute the grade of each of a set of
classes.
–For each class, take marks inputs of few students and calculate the
class average.
–Need to be careful that the average grade for each class is computed
independently of other classes!
–After computing the average for a class, need to see if there is another
class.
• Draw a flowchart and write the program of the above exercise

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 Repetition Structure
For Loop

CS 110 Fundamentals of Computer Programming

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For Syntax
• The syntax of for loop is:
for (expr1; expr2; expr3)
{

// codes

}
expr1= initializationStatement;
expr2= testExpression;
expr3= updateStatement;

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 How for loop works
• The initialization statement is executed only once.
• Then, the test expression is evaluated. If the test
expression is false (0), for loop is terminated. But if the
test expression is true (nonzero), codes inside the body
of for loop is executed and the update expression is
updated.
• This process repeats until the test expression is false.
• The for loop is commonly used when the number of
iterations is known.
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 for loop Flowchart

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 Example
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int num, count, sum = 0;
printf("Enter a positive integer: ");
scanf("%d", &num); // for loop terminates when num is less than count

for(count = 1; count <= num; ++count)

{
sum += count;
}
printf("Sum = %d", sum); return 0;
}
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Example
• factorial of n (n!) = 1*2*3*4....n

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Example
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int n, i;
unsigned long long factorial = 1;
printf("Enter an integer: ");
scanf("%d",&n); // show error if the user enters a negative integer
if (n < 0)
printf("Error! Factorial of a negative number doesn't exist.");
else {
for(i=1; i<=n; ++i) {
factorial *= i; // factorial = factorial*i;
}
printf("Factorial of %d = %llu", n, factorial);
}
return 0;
}
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 While and for
• The for statement is closely related to the while
statement.
• Except in a few rare cases, a for loop can always be
replaced by an equivalent while loop:
expr1;
while ( expr2 ) {
statement
expr3;
}

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The for Statement
• The for statement is usually the best choice for loops
that “count up” (increment a variable) or “count down”
(decrement a variable).

• A for statement that counts up or down a total of n times

will usually have one of the following forms:

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For loops
• Counting up from 0 to n–1:
• for (i = 0; i < n; i++) …
• Counting up from 1 to n:
• for (i = 1; i <= n; i++) …
• Counting down from n–1 to 0:
• for (i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--) …
• Counting down from n to 1:
• for (i = n; i > 0; i--) …

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for Statement Idioms
• Common “for” statement errors:
• Using < instead of > (or vice versa) in the controlling
expression. “Counting up” loops should use the < or <=
operator. “Counting down” loops should use > or >=.
• Using == in the controlling expression instead of <, <=, >,
or >=.
• “Off-by-one” errors such as writing the controlling
expression as i <= n instead of i < n.

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Various forms of For loop
for (num=10; num<20; num=num+1)
• Here instead of num++, num=num+1 is used which is same as num++.

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Various forms of For loop

int num=10;
for (;num<20;num++)
Initialization part can be skipped from loop as shown below, the counter
variable is declared before the loop.
Note: Even though we can skip initialization part but semicolon (;) before condition is must, without which you will
get compilation error.

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Various forms of For loop
for (num=10; num<20; )
{
//Statements
num++;
}

you can also skip the increment part as we did below. In this case semicolon (;) is must
after condition logic. In this case the increment or decrement part is done inside the
loop.

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Various forms of For loop
int num=10;
for (;num<20;)
{
//Statements
num++;
}
This is also possible. The counter variable is initialized before the loop and incremented
inside the loop.

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Multiple initialization inside for Loop in C

for (i=1,j=1; i<10 && j<10; i++, j++)

What’s the difference between above for loop and a simple for loop?

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Infinite loop
We can also use infinite for loops like
for(;;)
which will never terminate except….?

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 Example: Break statement in for loop
int main( void )
{
int x; /* counter */
for ( x = 1; x <= 10; x++ )
{
if ( x == 5 )
{
break;
} /* end if */
printf( "%d ", x ); /* display value of x */
} /* end for */
printf( "\n Broke out of loop at x == %d \n", x );
return 0;
}
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 Example: continue statement in for loop

int main( void ){ printf( "%d ", x ); /* display

value of x */
int x; /* counter */ } /* end for */
for ( x = 1; x <= 10; x++ ) printf( "\n Used
{ continue to skip
if ( x == 5 ) printing the value 5\n"
);
{
return 0;
continue;
}
} /* end if */
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Exercises
• Print All Prime Numbers between 1 to N
• Find All Factors of a Number
• Find Sum of All Odd Numbers Between 1 to N
• Find Sum of All Even Numbers Between 1 to N
• Print Odd Numbers Between 1 to 100
• Print Even Numbers Between 1 to 100
• Print Natural Numbers in Reverse Order from 1 to N

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 Repetition Structure
Nested Loops

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Nested Loops
• A loop inside another loop is called a nested loop.
• We can have any number of nested loops as required.
• Consider a nested loop where the outer loop runs n times
and consists of another loop inside it.
• The inner loop runs m times.
• Then, the total number of times the inner loop runs
during the program execution is n*m.

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Scenario-1

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Fundamentals of computer programming 56
Scenario-2

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 customer
For each
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Types of nested loops
• Nested while loop
• Nested do-while loop
• Nested for loop

• Note: There can be mixed type of nested loop i.e. a for loop inside a while
loop, or a while loop inside a do-while loop.

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Repetition structure required?

• Is there a repetition? Do we need a loop?

• Nested?
• How many iterations?
• Loop counter/condition variable?

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Repetition structure required?

Do we need a loop?
•Nested?
•How many iterations?
•Loop counter/condition variable?

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Nested for loops
• A for loop can contain any kind of statement in its body, including another for loop.
• The inner loop must have a different name for its loop counter variable so that it will not conflict
with the outer loop.

for (int i = 1; i <= 3; i++)

{
for (int j = 1; j <= 2; j++)
{
printf(“seven \n");

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Example 1: Nested for loops
for (int i = 1; i <= 5; i++)
{
for (int j = 1; j <= 10; j++)
{
printf(“%d ” , i * j);
}
printf(“\n”); // to end the line
}

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Example 2: Nested for loops

for (int row = 1; row <= 6; row++;) {

for (int col = 1; col <= row; col++;) {

printf("*");

printf(“\n”);

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Example of Nested while loop
int i=1, j;
while (i <= 5)
{
j=1;
while (j <= i )
{
printf("%d ",j);
j++;
}
printf("\n");
i++;
}
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Example of Nested do-while loop
int main()
{
int i=1,j;
do
{
j=1;
do
{
printf("*");
j++;
}while(j <= i);
i++;
printf("\n");
}while(i <= 5);
return 0;
}

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Exercises
• Write a program that prints factorial of all numbers from
1 to 15.

• Write a program to generate the Fibonacci series in c

• E.g. 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377

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