Using Loops
C# Programming
©Rob Miles
What we can do so far
• We know there are three flavours of loops
do – while – put the test at the end
while – put the test at the start
for – create and update a control variable
• We also know that we can continue
(go round again) and break (leave the
loop)
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 2
Pick a Loop
• I want to ask a user for a film number and
reject values outside the range of 1-6
• What kind of loop?
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 3
Pick a Loop
• I want to ask a user for a film number and
reject values outside the range of 1-6
• What kind of loop?
• A do – while loop will work best
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 4
Pick a Loop
• I want to ask a user for a film number and
reject values outside the range of 1-6
• What kind of loop?
• A do – while loop will work best
• Why?
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 5
Pick a Loop
• I want to ask a user for a film number and
reject values outside the range of 1-6
• What kind of loop?
• A do – while loop will work best
• Why?
• Because this loop always performs the
statements in the loop at least once
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 6
Pick another Loop
• I want the user to enter a number, and
make my program print out the times
table for that number, up to 12
• What kind of loop?
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 7
Pick another Loop
• I want the user to enter a number, and
make my program print out the times
table for that number, up to 12
• What kind of loop?
• A For loop would work best for this
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 8
Pick another Loop
• I want the user to enter a number, and
make my program print out the times
table for that number, up to 12
• What kind of loop?
• A For loop would work best for this
• What would it look like?
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 9
Pick another Loop
• I want the user to enter a number, and
make my program print out the times
table for that number, up to 12
• What kind of loop?
• A For loop would work best for this
• What would it look like?
for ( i = 1; i < 13 ; i = i+1)
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 10
Final Loop
• I want to print out a square of * characters
on the screen
• The square should be 40 across and 10
down
• What kind of loop?
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 11
Final Loop
• I want to print out a square of * characters
on the screen
• The square should be 40 across and 10
down
• What kind of loop?
• This is a tricky one
• We need to put one loop inside another
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 12
Nesting Loops
• It is perfectly OK to put one loop inside
another
• Many programs do this
• In this case it might help if we rephrase
the problem
“Print out 10 lines, each containing 40
characters”
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 13
Two control variables
• If we have two loops we need two counters
int charNo;
int lineNo;
• One counts the lines, the other counts the
characters
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 14
The Outer Loop
• The Outer Loop repeats for each line
for (lineNo = 0; lineNo < 10; lineNo = lineNo + 1)
{
}
• We want 10 lines, and so the loop goes
round 10 times
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 15
The Inner Loop
• The Inner Loop repeats for each character
for (charNo = 0; charNo < 40; charNo = charNo + 1)
{
}
• We want 40 characters and so the loop
goes round 40 times
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 16
The Final Program
int charNo;
int lineNo;
for (lineNo = 0; lineNo < 10; lineNo = lineNo + 1)
{
for (charNo = 0; charNo < 40; charNo = charNo + 1)
{
Console.Write("*");
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
• This is the final program
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 17
The Final Program
int charNo;
int lineNo;
for (lineNo = 0; lineNo < 10; lineNo = lineNo + 1)
{
for (charNo = 0; charNo < 40; charNo = charNo + 1)
{
Console.Write("*");
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
• Create the counter variables
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 18
The Final Program
int charNo;
int lineNo;
for (lineNo = 0; lineNo < 10; lineNo = lineNo + 1)
{
for (charNo = 0; charNo < 40; charNo = charNo + 1)
{
Console.Write("*");
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
• This is the outer loop, it goes round once
for each line on the screen
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 19
The Final Program
int charNo;
int lineNo;
for (lineNo = 0; lineNo < 10; lineNo = lineNo + 1)
{
for (charNo = 0; charNo < 40; charNo = charNo + 1)
{
Console.Write("*");
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
• This is the inner loop
• It goes round once for each character
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 20
The Final Program
int charNo;
int lineNo;
for (lineNo = 0; lineNo < 10; lineNo = lineNo + 1)
{
for (charNo = 0; charNo < 40; charNo = charNo + 1)
{
Console.Write("*");
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
• This writes a single *
• It uses Write, so it doesn’t take a new line
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 21
The Final Program
int charNo;
int lineNo;
for (lineNo = 0; lineNo < 10; lineNo = lineNo + 1)
{
for (charNo = 0; charNo < 40; charNo = charNo + 1)
{
Console.Write("*");
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
• Once we have printed the * characters the
program must move on to the next line
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 22
Final Output
• This is what the program produces
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 23
Changing the code
• To print more lines we need to change the
value 10 to a different one
• To print more characters we need to
change the value 40 to a different one
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 24
Summary
• You need to pick the loop that is
appropriate for the task in hand
– Decide where the test needs to go
– Decide if you are repeating something a
particular number of times
• You can put one loop inside another
Chapter 6.2 : Loops 11-Oct-13 ©Rob Miles 25
