Looping in C

How can you tell whether a loop ended prematurely?

Generally, loops are dependent on one or more variables. Your program can check those variables outside the loop to ensure that the loop executed properly. For instance, consider the following example:

#define REQUESTED_BLOCKS 512
int x;
char* cp[REQUESTED_BLOCKS];
/* Attempt (in vain, I must add...) to
   allocate 512 10KB blocks in memory. */
for (x=0; x< REQUESTED_BLOCKS; x++)
{
     cp[x] = (char*) malloc(10000, 1);
     if (cp[x] == (char*) NULL)
          break;
}
/* If x is less than REQUESTED_BLOCKS,
   the loop has ended prematurely. */
if (x < REQUESTED_BLOCKS)
     printf("Bummer! My loop ended prematurely!\n");

Notice that for the loop to execute successfully, it would have had to iterate through 512 times. Immediately following the loop, this condition is tested to see whether the loop ended prematurely. If the variable x is anything less than 512, some error has occurred.

BRANCHING AND LOOPING in C

6. Write short notes on the following: (JAN 2009)
for loop
while loop
dowhile loop
Switch case  (MAY 2009/FEB 2009/FEB 2010)

1. ITERATION, FOR LOOPS
The basic format of the for statement is,
for( start condition; continue condition; re-evaulation )
program statement;
/* sample program using a for statement */
#include <stdio.h>
main() /* Program introduces the for statement, counts to ten */
{
int count;
for( count = 1; count <= 10; count = count + 1 )
printf(“%d “, count );

printf(“\n”);
}
The program declares an integer variable count. The first part of the for statement for (count = 1; initialized the value of count to 1.
The for loop continues with the condition count <= 10; evaluates as TRUE. As
the variable count has just been initialized to 1, this condition is TRUE and so the
program statement printf(“%d “, count ); is executed, which prints the value of count to the screen, followed by a space character.
Next, the remaining statement of the for is executed count = count + 1); which adds one to the current value of count. Control now passes back to the conditional test, count <= 10; which evaluates as true, so the program statement printf(“%d “, count ); is executed.
Count is incremented again, the condition re-evaluated etc, until count reaches a value of
11.
When this occurs, the conditional test count <= 10; evaluates as FALSE, and the for loop terminates, and program control passes to the statement printf(“\n”); which prints a newline, and then the program terminates, as there are no more statements left to execute

2. THE WHILE STATEMENT
The while provides a mechanism for repeating C statements whilst a condition is
true. Its format is, while( condition ) program statement;
Somewhere within the body of the while loop a statement must alter the value of the condition to allow the loop to finish.
Example:
/* Sample program including while */
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int loop = 0;
while( loop <= 10 ) {
printf(“%d\n”, loop);
++loop;
}
}
The above program uses a while loop to repeat the statements
printf(“%d\n”,loop); ++loop; the value of the variable loop is less than or
equal to 10.
3. THE DO WHILE STATEMENT
The do { } while statement allows a loop to continue whilst a condition evaluates as TRUE (non-zero). The loop is executed as least once.
Example:
/* Demonstration of DO...WHILE */
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int value, r_digit;
printf(“Enter the number to be reversed.\n”);
scanf(“%d”, &value);
do {
r_digit = value % 10; printf(“%d”, r_digit); value = value / 10;
} while( value != 0 );
printf(“\n”);
}
The above program reverses a number that is entered by the user. It does this by using the modulus % operator to extract the right most digit into the variable r_digit. The original number is then divided by 10, and the operation repeated whilst the number is not equal to 0.