ch 4 : LOOP Statement
ITERATIVE STATEMENS
ITERATIVE STATEMENTS
An iterative or loop statement allows us to execute a statement or group of statements
multiple times until the condition is true.
It stops when the condition becomes false.
NEED OF ITERATIVE/LOOPING STATEMENTS
There may be a situation, when you need to execute a block of code several number of
times.
For example, if you are asked to display your name 1000 times on the screen using a
program.
It is not worth writing the same display statement 1000 times in the program.
It may lead to errors and makes the program code unnecessarily lengthy.
To avoid all these problems loops are essential.
Loops are used to execute the identical code repeatedly.
TYPES OF ITERATIVE STATEMENTS
There are two types of iterative/looping statements.
1. FOR LOOP
2. WHILE LOOP
for LOOP STATEMENT
The for loop is used to execute a set of statements a fixed number of times.
Usually the number of times the statements are going to execute is known at the start
of the loop.
Python’s for statement iterates over the items of a sequence(list, string, tuple, set,
dictionary etc..), in the order that they appear in the sequence.
SYNTAX:
for loop_variable in sequence:
statement-block
for i in [1,2,3,4,5] :
print('HELLO')
WORKING OF FOR LOOP
The loop_variable is assigned the first value present in the sequence.
Next the statement block is executed.
After this the next value present in the sequence is assigned to the loop_variable and
the statement block is executed.
This process continues till the entire sequence is exhausted.
NOTE: The indented statements that follow the for loop forms the suite/loop body.
The loop body/suite is repeated by the for loop.
EXAMPLE
Q Write a loop statement using for loop to display “HELLO” five times on the screen.
for i in [1,2,3,4,5] :
print('HELLO')
OUTPUT
HELLO
HELLO
HELLO
HELLO
HELLO
for with range() function
The range() function is used when we need to iterate over a sequence number
range([beg], end, [step])
# beg, step is optional
The function range( ) generates a list of values starting from beg till end-1
. if step is given added to the value generated, to get the next value in the list.
The default value for step is 1 i.e. if step parameter is not specified 1 is added at every
iteration.
The beg parameter is also optional. If it is not specified list starts from zero.
EXAMPLE
# Prints HELLO 5 times on the screen
for i in range(1,6):
print('HELLO')
OUTPUT
HELLO
HELLO
HELLO
HELLO
HELLO
Note: The second number (end here) is not included in the range i.e. all numbers up to
this number are included in the range.
for LOOP: SOME MORE EXAMPLES
for k in range (1, 11):
print( k)
The loop will execute 10 times and will display numbers from 1 to 10.
for m in range (100, 0, -25):
print( m)
The loop will execute 4 times and will display numbers: 100, 75, 50, 25. Loop variable
will be decremented by 25 at every step.
inange(4):
print(k)
Prints out the numbers
0
1
ange(10, 13):
print(m)
Prints out
10
11
12
print(n)
Prints out
10
15
20
for a in range(-10, -100, -20):
print(n)
Prints out
-10
-30
-50
-70
-90
while STATEMENT
While loop repeats itself as long as a given condition is true.
SYNTAX:
while(test expression):
statement-block
If the test expression is true, statement-block will be executed.
If the test expression evaluates to false, loop will not be executed and control passes to
the statement following the loop.
EXAMPLE
Q Write a loop statement using while loop to display “HELLO” five times on the screen.
i=1;
while i<=5:
print ('HELLO')
i=i+1
OUTPUT
HELLO
HELLO
HELLO
HELLO
HELLO
EXAMPLE OF WHILE LOOP
Q WAP to input a number and display the sum of its digits.
sum=0
i=eval(input('Enter a number'))
while i>0:
a=i%10
i=i//10
sum =sum + a
print("sum of digits =",sum)
OUTPUT
Enter a number234
sum of digits =9
m=100
while m>0:
print (m)
m=m-25
The loop will execute 4 times and will display numbers: 100, 75, 50,25. Loop variable will
be decremented by 25 at every step.
m=100
while m>0:
print(m)
m=m +25
The loop will execute infinitely as value of m is incremented by 25 at every step. It will
always be greater than zero and test expression will never become false
.
k=1
while k>10:
print(k)
k=k+1
The loop will not execute at all because the test expression is false in the beginning
itself. There will be no output.
while 0:
print("hello")
The loop will not execute at all because the test expression has value 0 which is
considered as false in the beginning itself. There will be no output.
while 1:
print("hello ")
The loop will execute infinitely because the test expression has value 1 which is
considered as true. The loop will execute indefinitely.
ELSE CLAUSE ON LOOPS
Loop statements may have an else clause.
If the else clause is used with for loop, it is executed when the loop terminates through
exhaustion of the list.
If the else clause is used with while loop, it is executed when the condition becomes
false.
EXAMPLE
for i in [0,1,2]:
print("Hello")
else:
print("Bye")
Hello
Hello
Hello
Bye
i=1
while i<4:
print("Hello")
i=i+1
else:
print("Bye")
Hello
Hello
Hello
Bye
BREAK STATEMENT
The break statement enables a program to skip over a part of code.
A break statement terminates out of the innermost enclosing for or while loop.
Execution resumes at the statement immediately following the body of the terminated
loop.
EXAMPLE1
for i in [0,1,2,3,4]:
if(i>=2):
break
print(i)
print("end")
OUTPUT
end
EXAMPLE 2
i=1
while i<10:
if(i%5==0):
break
print(i)
i=i+1
OUTPUT
CONTINUE STATEMENT
Continue statement causes the current iteration of the loop to skip and go to the next
iteration.
All the statements following the continue statement in the loop will not be executed and
loop control goes to the next iteration.
EXAMPLE
for i in [0,1,2,3,4]:
if(i ==2):
continue
print(i)
print("end")
OUTPUT
end
EXAMPLE
i=1
while i<=10:
i=i+1
if(i%5==0):
continue
print(i)
OUTPUT
11
NOTE:
When the loop is terminated by a break statement, else clause is not executed.
The "else" part of the loop is executed even if there is a continue
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BREAK, CONTINUE
BREAK
Break statement causes the loop to break/ terminate immediately.
The loop of which, break statement is a part, stops.
CONTINUE
Continue statement causes the current iteration of the loop to skip and go to the next
iteration.
All the statements following the continue statement in the loop will not be executed and
loop control goes to the next iteration.
s=10;
for i in range (10, 20, 3):
s+=i
if(i==16):
break
print(s);
print("end");
OUTPUT:
20
33
end
s=10;
for i in range (10, 20, 3):
s+=i
if(i==16):
continue
print(s);
print("end");
OUTPUT:
20
33
68
end
NESTED LOOPS
Nested loop is a loop declared inside another loop.
NOTE: We can also nest while loop inside the for loop and vice versa.
WORKING OF NESTED LOOP
EXAMPLE
Give the output of the following code fragment:
for i in range (1, 5, 1):
for j in range (1,i):
print('*', end=' ')
print('\n')
OUTPUT
**
***
