ICS103: Programming in C

5: Repetition and Loop Statements

Muhamed F. Mudawar
OUTLINE
 Repetition in Programs
 Counting loops
 The while statement
 The for statement
 Conditional Loops
 Nested Loops
 The do-while statement
 How to debug and test programs
 Common Programming Errors 2
RECALL: CONTROL STRUCTURES
 Three kinds of control structures
 Sequence (Compound Statement)
 Selection (if and switch Statements)
 Repetition (discussed in this presentation)
 The repetition of steps in a program is called a loop
 Three loop control structures in C
 The while statement
 The for statement
3
 The do-while statement
REPETITION IN PROGRAMS
 Loop structure
 A control structure that repeats a group of steps in a program
 Loop body
 The statements that are repeated inside the loop
 Three questions to raise:
1. Are there any steps repeated in the problem?
2. If the answer to question 1 is yes, is the number of repetitions
know in advance?
3. If the answer to question 2 is no, then how long to keep
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repeating the steps?
FLOWCHART OF LOOP CHOICE

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COUNTING LOOP
 Called a Counter-controlled loop
A loop that can be controlled by a counter variable
 Number of iterations (repetitions) can be determined
before loop execution begins
 General format of a counting loop:
Set loop control variable to an initial value
while (loop control variable < final value) {
/* Do something multiple times */
Increase loop control variable by 1 6

}
THE while STATEMENT
 Syntax: Loop Repetition Condition
while (condition) {
statement1 ;
statement2 ; Loop Body:
Can be one statement, or
. . .
Compound statement
statementN ;
}
 As long as condition is true, the loop body is executed
 The condition is re-tested after each iteration
7
 The loop terminates when condition becomes false
EXAMPLE OF A while LOOP
 Compute and display the gross pay for 7 employees
 Initialization: count_emp = 0;
 Testing: (count_emp < 7)
 Updating: count_emp = count_emp + 1;

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FLOWCHART OF A while LOOP

Loop repetition condition

Loop body

If count_emp is not updated,

the loop will execute forever. 9
Such a loop is called infinite loop.
Total Payroll of a Company

10
Enter number of employees> 3
Hours> 50
Rate> $5.25
Pay is $262.50

Hours> 6
SAMPLE
Rate> $5.0
Pay is $ 30.00 RUN
Hours> 15
Rate> $7.0
Pay is $105.00

All employees processed

Total payroll is $ 397.50 11
NEXT . . .
 Repetition in Programs
 Counting loops
 The while statement
 The for statement
 Conditional Loops
 Nested Loops
 The do-while statement
 How to debug and test programs
 Common Programming Errors 12
THE for STATEMENT
 Better way to write a counting loop
for (initialization expression;
loop repetition condition;
update expression)
Statement ; /* Can be Compound */
 First, the initialization expression is executed
 Then, the loop repetition condition is tested
 If true, the Statement is executed , the update expression is
computed, and the repetition condition is re-tested
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 Repeat as long as the repetition condition is true
ACCUMULATING A SUM: total_pay

/* initialization */
/* repetition condition */
/* update */

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COMPOUND ASSIGNMENT OPERATORS
variable op= expression ; is equivalent to
variable = variable op (expression) ;
Statement with Simple Equivalent with Compound
Assignment Operator Assignment Operator
count_emp = count_emp + 1; count_emp += 1;

time = time - 1; time -= 1;

product = product * item; product *= item;

total = total / number; total /= number;

n = n % (x+1); n %= x+1; 15
PREFIX AND POSTFIX INCREMENTS

C also provides the decrement operator -- that can be

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used in either the prefix or postfix position
COMPUTING THE FACTORIAL
// Factorial: n! = n * (n-1) * . . . * 2 * 1
// Computed with a for-loop

printf("Enter value of n: ");

scanf("%d", &n);

factorial = 1; // Initialize
for (i=n; i>1; i--) {
factorial = factorial * i;
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}
 CONVERSION OF
CELSIUS TO FAHRENHEIT
Display a Table of Values

Decrement by 5

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NEXT . . .
 Repetition in Programs
 Counting loops
 The while statement
 The for statement
 Conditional Loops
 Nested Loops
 The do-while statement
 How to debug and test programs
 Common Programming Errors 19
CONDITIONAL LOOPS
 Notable to determine the exact number of loop
repetitions before loop execution begins
 Example of a conditional loop: input validation
printf("Enter number of students> ");
scanf("%d", &num_students);
while (num_students < 0) {
printf("Invalid negative number; try again> ");
scanf("%d", &num_students);
}
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 while loop rejects invalid (negative) input
SENTINEL-CONTROLLED LOOPS
 In many programs, we input a list of data values
 Often, we don’t know the length of the list
 We ask the user to enter a unique data value, called a
sentinel value, after the last data item
 Sentinel Value
 An end marker that follows the last value in a list of data
 For readability, we used #define to name the SENTINEL
 The loop repetition condition terminates a loop when the
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sentinel value is read
SENTINEL-CONTROLLED while LOOP
#include <stdio.h>
#define SENTINEL -1 /* Marking end of input */

int main(void) { /* Compute the sum of test scores */

int sum = 0; /* Sum of test scores */
int score; /* Current input score */

printf("Enter first score (%d to quit)> ", SENTINEL);

scanf("%d", &score);
while (score != SENTINEL) {
sum += score;
printf("Enter next score (%d to quit)> ", SENTINEL);
scanf("%d", &score);
}
printf("\nSum of exam scores is %d\n", sum);
return (0); 22

}
SENTINEL-CONTROLLED for LOOP
#include <stdio.h>
#define SENTINEL -1 /* Marking end of input */

int main(void) { /* Compute the sum of test scores */

int sum = 0; /* Sum of test scores */
int score; /* Current input score */

printf("Enter first score (%d to quit)> ", SENTINEL);

for (scanf("%d", &score);
score != SENTINEL;
scanf("%d", &score)) {
sum += score;
printf("Enter next score (%d to quit)> ", SENTINEL);
}
printf("\nSum of exam scores is %d\n", sum);
return (0); 23

}
INFINITE LOOP ON FAULTY INPUT DATA
 Reading faulty data can result in an infinite loop
scanf("%d", &score); /* read integer */
 Suppose the user enters the letter X
Enter next score (-1 to quit)> X
scanf fails to read variable score as letter X
 Variable score is not modified in the program
score != SENTINEL is always true
 Therefore, Infinite Loop 24
DETECTING FAULTY INPUT DATA
 scanf can detect faulty input as follows:
status = scanf("%d", &score);
 If scanf successfully reads score then status is 1
 If scanf fails to read score then status is 0
 We can test status to detect faulty input
 This can be used to terminate the execution of a loop
 In general, scanf can read multiple variables
 It returns the number of successfully read inputs 25
TERMINATING LOOP ON FAULTY INPUT
int main(void) { /* Compute the sum of test scores */
int sum = 0; /* Sum of test scores */
int score; /* Current input score */
int status; /* Input status of scanf */

printf("Enter first score (%d to quit)> ", SENTINEL);

status = scanf("%d", &score);
while (status != 0 && score != SENTINEL) {
sum += score;
printf("Enter next score (%d to quit)> ", SENTINEL);
status = scanf("%d", &score);
}
printf("\nSum of exam scores is %d\n", sum);
return (0); 26

}
NEXT . . .
 Repetition in Programs
 Counting loops
 The while statement
 The for statement
 Conditional Loops
 Nested Loops
 The do-while statement
 How to debug and test programs
 Common Programming Errors 27
NESTED LOOPS
 Consist of an outer loop with one or more inner loops
 Each time the outer loop is repeated, the inner loops are
reentered and executed
 Example:

int n = 5; *
int i, j; **
for (i=1; i<=n; i++) {
***
for (j=1; j<=i; j++) {
outer loop
inner loop

printf("*"); ****
} *****
printf("\n"); 28
}
 WHAT IS THE OUTPUT?
/* Illustrates nested for loops */
#include <stdio.h>
I J
int main(void) { Outer 1
int i, j; /* loop variables */ Inner 0
printf(" I J\n"); Outer 2
for (i = 1; i < 4; i++) { Inner 0
printf("Outer %6d\n", i); Inner 1
for (j = 0; j < i; j++) { Outer 3
printf(" Inner%9d\n", j); Inner 0
} /* end of inner loop */
Inner 1
} /* end of outer loop */
Inner 2
return (0);
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}
THE do-while STATEMENT
 The for and while statements evaluate the loop
condition before the execution of the loop body
 The do-while statement evaluates the loop condition
after the execution of the loop body
 Syntax:

do
statement; /* Can be compound */
while (loop repetition condition) ;
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 The do-while must execute at least one time
USING do-while TO REPEAT PROGRAM
int main() {
. . . /* Variable Declarations */
char ch; /* User response [y/n] */

do {
. . . /* Execute program */
printf("Repeat again [y/n]? ");
ch = getch(); /* read from keyboard */
printf("%c\n", ch); /* display character */
} while (ch=='y'|| ch=='Y');
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}
NEXT . . .
 Repetition in Programs
 Counting loops
 The while statement
 The for statement
 Conditional Loops
 Nested Loops
 The do-while statement
 How to debug and test programs
 Common Programming Errors 32
HOW TO DEBUG AND TEST A PROGRAM
 Using a debugger program
 Debug option should be selected
 Execute program one statement at a time (Next line)
 Watch the value of variables at runtime (Add watch)
 Set breakpoints at selected statements
 Debugging without a debugger
 Insert extra printf statements that display intermediate results at
critical points in your program
if (DEBUG) printf(. . .);
 Turn ON diagnostic calls to printf
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#define DEBUG 1
EXAMPLE: DEBUGGING USING printf
#define DEBUG 1 /* turn on diagnostics */
#define DEBUG 0 /* turn off diagnostics */

int main() {
int score, sum=0;
printf("Enter first score (%d to quit)> ", SENTINEL);
scanf("%d", &score); /* get first score */
while (score != SENTINEL) {
sum += score;
if (DEBUG) printf("score=%d, sum=%d\n", score, sum);
printf("Enter next score (%d to quit)> ", SENTINEL);
scanf("%d", &score); /* get next score */
}
printf("Total score is %d\n", sum);
return 0; 34

}
OFF-BY-ONE LOOP ERRORS
A common logic error
A loop executes one more time or one less time
 Example:

for (count = 0; count <= n; ++count)

sum += count; Executes n + 1 times

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

sum += count; Executes n – 1 times
 Checking loop boundaries
 Initial and final values of the loop control variable 35
COMMON PROGRAMMING ERRORS (1/2)
 Do not confuse if and while statements
 if statement implements a decision step
 while statement implements a loop
 for loop: remember to end the initialization step and
the loop repetition condition with semicolon (;)
 Remember to use braces { and } around a loop body
consisting of multiple statements
 Remember to provide a prompt for the user, when using
a sentinel-controlled loop
 Make sure the sentinel value cannot be confused with a
normal data input 36
COMMON PROGRAMMING ERRORS (2/2)
 Usedo-while only when there is no possibility of zero
loop iterations
 Donot use increment, decrement, or compound
assignment as sub-expressions in complex expressions
a *= b + c; /* a = a*(b+c); */
There is no shorter way to write: a = a*b + c;
 Be
sure that the operand of an increment/decrement
operator is a variable:
z = ++j * k--; /* ++j; z=j*k; k--; */ 37
CHAPTER REVIEW
 Two kinds of loops occur frequently in programming
 Counting loop: controlled by a counter
 Conditional loop: controlled by a condition
 Sentinel-controlled loop
 Input validation loop
 General conditional loop
C provides three statements for implementing loops
 while statement (can have zero repetitions)
 for statement (can have zero repetitions)
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 do-while statement (must execute at least once)