Algorithms & Programming
Программирование на Kotlin
(p.4 – control flow, loops)
Yevhen Berkunskyi, NUoS
[email protected] http://www.berkut.mk.ua
Loops
• Loops are Kotlin's way of executing code
multiple times. In this lecture, you’ll learn
about three types of loops: the while loop, the
do-while loop, for loop.
• If you know another programming language,
you’ll find the concepts and maybe even the
syntax to be familiar.
While loop
• A while loop repeats a block of code while a
condition is true. You create a while loop this
way:
while (<CONDITION>) {
<LOOP CODE>
}
While loop
• The loop checks the condition for every
iteration.
• If the condition is true, then the loop executes
and moves on to another iteration.
• If the condition is false, then the loop stops.
• Just like if expressions, while loops introduce a
scope.
• The simplest while loop takes this form:
while (true) {
}
While loop
• The simplest while loop takes this form:
while (true) {
}
• This is a while loop that never ends because the
condition is always true. Of course, you would
never write such a while loop, because your
program would spin forever!
• This situation is known as an infinite loop, and
while it might not cause your program to crash,
it will very likely cause your computer to freeze.
While loop
• Here’s a more useful example of a while loop:
var sum = 1
while (sum < 1000) {
sum = sum + (sum + 1)
}
This code calculates a mathematical sequence, up
to the point where the value is greater than 1000.
What value will be in sum variable after this code
was executed?
Let’s code!
do-while loop
• A variant of the while loop is called the do-while
loop.
• It differs from the while loop in that the condition
is evaluated at the end of the loop rather than at
the beginning.
• You construct a do-while loop like this:
do {
<LOOP CODE>
} while (<CONDITION>)
do-while loop
• Here’s the example from the last section, but
using a do-while loop:
sum = 1
do {
sum = sum + (sum + 1)
} while (sum < 1000)
In this example, the outcome is the same as before.
However, that isn’t always the case; you might get a
different result with a different condition.
Why? And when?
while vs do-while
Breaking out of a loop
• Sometimes you want to break out of a loop early.
• You can do this using the break statement, which
immediately stops the execution of the loop and
continues on to the code after the loop.
• For example, consider the following code:
sum = 1
while (true) {
sum = sum + (sum + 1)
if (sum >= 1000) {
break
}
}
For loops
• This is probably the most common loop you’ll
see, and you’ll use it to run code a certain
number of times.
• You construct a for loop like this:
for (<CONSTANT> in <RANGE>) {
<LOOP CODE>
}
For loops
• The loop begins with the for keyword, followed
by a name given to the loop constant (more on
that shortly), followed by in, followed by the
range to loop through. Here’s an example:
val count = 10
var sum = 0
for (i in 1..count) {
sum += i
}
In the code above, the for loop iterates through the range 1 to count.
At the first iteration, i will equal the first element in the range: 1.
Each time around the loop, i will increment until it’s equal to count;
the loop will execute one final time and then finish.
Notes about for loop
• If you’d used a half-open range, the last iteration
would see i equal to count - 1.
• In terms of scope, the i constant is only visible
inside the scope of the for loop, which means
it’s not available outside of the loop.
repeat loop
• Sometimes you only want to loop a certain
number of times, and so you don’t need to use
the loop constant at all.
• In that case, you can employ a repeat loop, like so:
sum = 1
var lastSum = 0
repeat(10) {
val temp = sum
sum += lastSum
lastSum = temp
}
for loops
• It’s also possible to only perform certain
iterations in the range.
• For example, imagine you wanted to compute a
sum similar to that of triangle numbers, but only
for odd numbers:
sum = 0
for (i in 1..count step 2) {
sum += i
}
for loops
• You can even count down in a for loop using
downTo.
• In this case if count is 10 then the loop will iterate
through the following values (10, 8, 6, 4, 2).
sum = 0
for (i in count downto 1 step 2) {
sum += i
}
continue statement
• Sometimes you’d like to skip a loop iteration for a
particular case without breaking out of the loop
entirely.
• You can do this with the continue statement,
which immediately ends the current iteration of
the loop and starts the next iteration.
• The continue statement gives you a higher level
of control, letting you decide where and when
you want to skip an iteration.
Let’s code!
Questions?
Algorithms & Programming
Программирование на Kotlin
(p.4 - control flow, loops)
Yevhen Berkunskyi, NUoS
[email protected] http://www.berkut.mk.ua
