SCA Pvt. Ltd.

(Sharma Computer Academy)

Author: Saurabh Shukla

Chapter-6
Iterative Control Instruction
Loop
Iterative control instruction is also known as repetitive control instruction or loop.
Sometimes it is desirable to executed same statement again and again. This can be done
with the help of loops.
There are three ways to implement loops in C language:
l while
l do-while
l for
Syntax of while
main()
{
.
.
while(condition)
{
.
.
}

}
Syntax of while is similar to if. In the case of if, when the condition is TRUE control
moves inside if block and execute statements of if-block. After executing if-block control
moves to the statement written immediately after if-block (outside if-block).
In the case of while, when the condition is TRUE control moves inside while-block and
execute statements of while-block. After executing while-block control does not moves
to the statement written immediately after while-block rather it goes back to the condition
of while block. This condition will be checked again and if it is again TRUE control
moves again inside while-block. This repeats till the condition becomes FALSE.
Example:
main()
{
int i=1;
.
while(i<=5)
{
printf(SCA );

SCA Pvt. Ltd. (Sharma Computer Academy)

Author: Saurabh Shukla
i++;
}
printf(Out of loop);
}
Output:
SCA SCA SCA SCA SCA
In this example, printf is executed 5 times. You have to think about three things to control
loop execution. They are initialization, termination condition and flow. Here, i is used to
control loop. In the very first line of the main function i is initialized by 1. So when the
condition is evaluated first time it is interpreted as 1<=5, thus it is TRUE. Control enters
in while block and execute printf statement. After printf i is incremented by 1. This is
important as we want to execute loop body only five times. Initially i was 1 and in each
iteration it is incremented by 1, this makes i to reach a value where condition i<=5
becomes FALSE.
Syntax of do-while loop
main()
{
.
.
do
{
.
.
} while(condition);

Learn a new keyword do. The code block that has to put in loop is prefixed with keyword
do and post-fixed with keyword while along with termination condition. Remember to
put semicolon after while.
Do-while works similar to while but the only difference is earlier is executed at least
once. Since in while loop condition is evaluated first then goes into loop body, on the
other hand in do while loop first control enters in loop body then condition will be
checked. This makes possible to control enters in loop body even though the condition is
false. Although once the condition is checked FALSE loop is terminated.
Syntax of for
main()
{

SCA Pvt. Ltd. (Sharma Computer Academy)

Author: Saurabh Shukla
.
for( ; ;)
{

}
for loop is programmers choice as it contains initialization, termination and flow at same
place. Notice the two semicolons inside fors round braces, these are part of syntax,
hence should always be mentioned.
Two semicolons create three sections. First section is used for initialization, second
section is used for termination condition and third section is used to mention flow.
Example: Program to calculate factorial of a number
main()
{
int n,i,f=1;
printf(Enter a number );
scanf(%d,&n);
for(i=1 ; i<=n ; i++)
{
f = f * i;
}
printf(Factorial is %d, f);
}
Output
Enter a number 4
Factorial is 24
User enters a number which is stored in n. This loop executes n times as it goes from 1 to
n. Let us suppose value entered by user is 4. So n contains 4. Loop start with initialization
of i from 1. After initialization, termination condition is evaluated, which is TRUE, thus
control moves inside the code block. Initially f is containing 1 and it is multiplied by i
which also contains 1. The product is finally stored in f. Now control moves to the flow
part (i++). Condition is evaluated again but this time i become 2. Condition is again
TRUE. Control again enters in code block and the product of f and i will store in f.
Same process is repeated till the condition i<=n becomes FALSE.
Keyword break
The keyword break is used only in:
l Loop body
l Switch body

SCA Pvt. Ltd. (Sharma Computer Academy)

Author: Saurabh Shukla
break in loop body
The keyword break is used in loop body to terminate loop. When break executes, it
transfers the control out of loop body.
Whenever you are not sure with when the loop should stop, you can use break to
terminate loop.
Example:
main()
{
int x,i=1;
while(i<=5)
{
printf(Enter an even number);
scanf(%d,&x);
if(x%2==0)
{
printf(You Win);
break;
}
i++;
}
if(i==6)
printf(You lost);
}
In this program, break is used to terminate loop when user enters an even number. This
program is a sort of game where user has at most 5 chances to enter correct value. If he is
fail to enter correct value in all five chances he would lost the game. He may win the
game if he enters correct value in any of the five chances. Game must stop as soon as he
enters the correct data.
Let us assume first time user enters 3. Since x contains 3, condition x%2==0 is FALSE
so skipped if block and increments i by 1. On its second iteration, assume user enters 6.
This time condition x%2==0 is TRUE, so enters in if block. User gets a message You
Win. Now break works and it transfers the control out of while block. Where another
condition is evaluated, which is false.
Try executing above program for different inputs.
Keyword continue
The keyword continue is used only in loop body. It is used to move control at termination
condition in the case of while and do-while loop. continue is used in for loop to transfer
control at flow part (increment/decrement).

SCA Pvt. Ltd. (Sharma Computer Academy)

Author: Saurabh Shukla
Example
main()
{
int x;
while(1)
{
printf(Enter an even number);
scanf(%d,&x);
if(x%2==1)
continue;
else
{
printf(This is the correct value);
break;
}
}
}
This time condition of while loop is always TRUE as we wrote 1 which is a non zero
number. (Non zero number is always treated as TRUE). The loop only ends at the
execution of break. If the user enters an odd number condition x%2==1 becomes TRUE,
thus continue works. Continue transfers the control at while loop condition.
As long as user enters odd number, continue works every time, but when user enters an
even number, break terminates loop.