Loop Statements

      The ability to repeat tasks, such as statements, in computer programming really helps allow the programmer to represent just about any real life situation, thus making loop statements very important.  Loop statements are written using either FOR or WHILE, and are extremely helpful.  The number of possibilities is almost endless.  However, even though they are great programming tools, if you’re new to writing code like me, you may experience a bit of a struggle getting used to properly using them.

               

       A WHILE loop is sort of like an IF statement.  “An IF statement looks at the test one time and then maybe executes the body once.  The while loop extends this idea, executing the body again and again, checking the test each time.” (Parlante, 2012, fourth paragraph, second sentence).  Parlante goes on to include a WHILE loop consists of three things: a test, work, and an increment.  WHILE loops differ than FOR loops in that the number of repetitions is not known exactly at first.  It’s even possible for a WHILE loop to repeat an infinite number of times.  A real life example of a WHILE loop might be: 

While there are still more grocery items on my list

                Find item

                Cross off my list

Endwhile

                “A FOR loop is a variant of the WHILE loop, specialized to deal with a particular looping problem.” (Parlante, 2012, sixth section, first sentence)What that means is FOR loops are used when you know exactly how many steps you take to accomplish your loop.  An example of a FOR loop would be seen in the code written to represent shuffling and dealing cards.  You would have a set number of cards to shuffle, therefor you’d have a finite number of repetitions.  For example:

For cards 1 to 52

                Shuffle cards

Endfor 

Reference

Parlante, N. (2012). CodingBat Java For While Loops. Retrieved May 12, 2015, from             http://codingbat.com/doc/java-for-while-loops.html