Programming 1

Lecture 4 – For loop

While loop

Faculty of Information Technology

Hanoi University
 Contents
• For Loop
• Arrays
• Stopping a For Loop with break
• Skipping For Loop with continue
• While Loop & Do..While Loop
 The power of computer
• Comes from the fact that it can repeat things
efficiently.
– They are extremely fast!
• Statements can be made to repeat for a great
number of times.
– Most problems require repeating a lot of
calculations or actions.
• All programming languages support repetition
with a feature called Loop.
 The for loop
• Used to repeat a block of code many times.
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) { block of
System.out.println("Iteration " + i); code to
} repeat

stopping condition how i changes

the starting point (loop stops when it's false) (after a step/iteration)

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

 The for loop explained
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
System.out.println("Iteration " + i);
}

• Let i = 0
• Now i < 2 is true, let's display the text:
Iteration 0
• Execute i++, and now i becomes 1
• The condition i < 2 is still true, let's display the text:
Iteration 1
• Execute i++, and now i becomes 2
• Finally i < 2 is false, we won't display another line.Loop ends.
How many lines have we displayed? What numbers were shown?
 Example
System.out.println("The first 10 natural numbers:");
for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
System.out.println(i);
}

Result
The first 10 natural numbers:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
 for loop flowchart
for (i = 2; i <= 6; i = i + 2) {
print (i + 1)
}

Image credit: stackoverflow.com

 Short-hand operators
Short-hand Equivalent Comment

a++ a = a + 1 a++ has the value of a

++a a = a + 1 ++a has the value of (a + 1)
a-- a = a - 1 a-- has the value of a
--a a = a - 1 --a has the value of (a - 1)
a += 3 a = a + 3 Increments then assigns
a -= 4 a = a - 4 Decrements then assigns
a *= 5 a = a * 5 Multiplies then assigns
a /= 6 a = a / 6 Divides then assigns
a %= 2 a = a % 2 Modulus then assigns
The trace table technique
step t t < 16 x
1 - - -
2 - - 3
3 0 T 3
4 0 T 9
5 3 T 9
6 3 T 27
7 6 T 27
8 6 T 81
9 9 T 81
10 9 T 243
11 12 T 243
12 … … …
 The array structure
• At times, we have to handle a lot of values and
declaring too many variables is not a good option
• So they gave programming languages a tool to group
many values into one variable called array
• We can do something like this:
int[] a = {6, 2, 15, 4, 11};
System.out.println(a[0] + a[2]); // 6 + 15

• We call the values by their 0 1 2 3 4

position in the array
6 2 15 4 11
• Position starts from 0
 Declare arrays
int[] a;
double[] b;
String[] names;

• If you declare them like this, they will be null

• null is the value of an object which hasn't been
initialized yet
String s; // s is null
Scanner sc; // sc is also null
Scanner sc2 = new Scanner(System.in);
// sc2 got initialized and isn't null
sc = new Scanner(System.in);
s = "Hello";
// sc and s are initialized
 Initialize arrays
int[] a = new int[10];

• An array of 10 zeros

double[] b = new double[5];

• A double array of 5 zeros

String[] names = new String[3];

• An array of 3 null values

→ Reason: The default value for int and double is 0
and for String is null
 Initialize arrays with values
int[] a = {2, 4, 6};

• An array of 3 numbers

double[] b = {0.2, 0.4, 0.1, -0.13, 0.9};

• An array of 5 real numbers

String[] names = {"Ha", "Tu", "Hoa"};

• An array of 3 strings
 Getting array length
int[] a = {2, 4, 6};
System.out.println(a.length); // 3

double[] b = {0.2, 0.4, 0.1, -0.13, 0.9};

System.out.println(b.length); // 5

String[] names = new String[10];

System.out.println(names.length); // 10

→ Array length can be automatically determined (based on

initialized values) or specified on declaration
 arrays and the for loop
• arrays are most useful when combined with
the for loop
double[] b = {0.2, 0.4, 0.1, -0.13, 0.9};
for (int i = 0; i < b.length; i++) {
System.out.println("#" + i + ": " + b[i]);
}

Result

#0: 0.2
#1: 0.4
#2: 0.1
#3: -0.13
#4: 0.9
 How to stop a for loop
• When we search for something with a for
loop, we may want to stop looking as soon as
it is found.
• E.g. Find one negative number from an array
such as: int[] a = {6,4,-2,6,5,9,15,-6,2};
for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
if (a[i] < 0) {
System.out.println("Found: " + a[i]);
}
}

What is the output of the above piece of code?

 How to stop a for loop
int[] a = {6, 4, -2, 6, 5, 9, 15, -6, 2};
for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
if (a[i] < 0) {
System.out.println("Found: " + a[i]);
}
}
Output:
Found: -2
Found: -6

• This piece of code found 2 negative numbers but only one is

required.
• After -2 is found at the 3rd iteration, the loop continues to run
until it finishes after 9 iterations.
• It should've stopped at the 3rd iteration.
 How to stop a for loop
int[] a = {6, 4, -2, 6, 5, 9, 15, -6, 2};
for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
if (a[i] < 0) {
System.out.println("Found: " + a[i]);
break;
}
}

Output:

Found: -2

• The break statement terminates an on-going for loop.

• break affects the loop which immediately contains it.
 How to stop a for loop
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < 10; j++) {
if (i * j > 30) {
System.out.println(i + "," + j);
break; // out of j loop
}
}
}
Output:
4,8
5,7
6,6
7,5
8,4
9,4
 How to stop a for loop
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < 10; j++) {
if (i * j > 30) {
System.out.println(i + "," + j);
}
}
if (i == 4) break; // out of i loop
}

Output:

4,8
4,9
 The while loop
• Repeat a block of code as long as a condition holds true
• The number of iterations is not specific and can be zero

The loop stops when loop condition is false

int n = 0;
while (n < 10) {
block of
System.out.println("n = " + n);
code to
n++; repeat
}
 while loop explained
int n = 1, e = 0;
while (n < 10) {
What is the output?
n = n * 2;
e++;
}
System.out.println("2^" + e + " = " + n);
• Let n = 1, e = 0
• Now n < 10 is true, let's continue the loop.
• Execute n = n * 2 and e++ → n becomes 2, e becomes 1
• The condition n < 10 is still true, let's continue the loop.
• Execute n = n * 2 and e++ → n becomes 4, e becomes 2
• The condition n < 10 is still true, let's continue the loop.
• Execute n = n * 2 and e++ → n becomes 8, e becomes 3
• The condition n < 10 is still true, let's continue the loop.
• Execute n = n * 2 and e++ → n becomes 16, e becomes 4
• Finally n < 10 is false, the loop ends.
while loop flowchart

Image credit: oreilly.com

 The do…while loop
• Repeat a block of code once, and then continues as long
as a condition holds true
• The number of iterations is not specific but always >= 1

int n = 0;
do { block of
System.out.println("n = " + n); code to
n++; repeat
} while (n < 10);

The loop stops when loop condition is false

 do…while loop explained
int n;
do {
System.out.print("Enter a positive integer: ");
n = sc.nextInt();
} while (n <= 0);
System.out.println("Thank you!");

• Let n be uninitialized
• Print a text message to ask user to enter a positive integer.
• Get n's value from the keyboard with sc.nextInt() method.
• Repeat if the user does not obey you.
do…while loop flowchart

Image credit: tutorialspanel.com

 Stop a while loop with break
• Similar to the for loop, the while loop can be
terminated with the break statement.
while (n < 10) {
if (sc.nextLine().equals("q")) {
System.out.println("Goodbye!");
break;
}
n++;
}
 Skip the rest of an iteration with continue
• Similar to the for loop, an iteration of a while loop and
do…while loop can be interrupted with continue
int n = 0;
while (n < 3) {
n++;
System.out.println(n);
if (n == 2) continue;
System.out.println("...checked!");
}
Output:
1
...checked!
2
3
...checked!
 Example
• Replace all spaces in a string with underscores.
 Answer 1
String s = "To infinity and beyond!";

for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {

if (s.charAt(i) == ' ') {
System.out.print("_");
} else {
System.out.print(s.charAt(i));
}
}

System.out.println(); // add a new line at the end

Comment: This solution uses a lot of print statements.

 Answer 2
String s = "There's a snake in my boot!";
String s2 = "";

for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {

if (s.charAt(i) == ' ') {
s2 = s2 + "_"; // this creates a new String
} else {
s2 = s2 + s.charAt(i); // same as above
}
}

System.out.println(s2);

Comment: This solution creates a lot of String objects, which is

computationally expensive.
 Example
• Calculate the square root of a number without a
built-in function (such as Math.sqrt())

• Newton’s method of approximation

– Let the number be N and the desirable square root be S
– At first, guess that S is 1
– If S = N / S then S is the square root of N
– If not, the next guess is the average of S and N / S
– Continue while the next guess is still different from the
previous guess
 Answer
double n = 50, s = 1, prev_s;
do {
prev_s = s; // save the previous guess
System.out.println(prev_s);
s = (s + n / s) / 2; // update the guess
} while (prev_s != s); // stop if 2 guesses are the same
System.out.println("Result: " + s);
Output:
1.0
25.5
13.730392156862745
8.685974371897991
7.221190474331159
7.072628275743689
7.071067984011346
7.071067811865477
7.0710678118654755
Result: 7.0710678118654755