Loops in C Programming

Loops in C Programming

Loops are fundamental control structures used in C programming to execute statements repeatedly until a specified condition is met. They allow you to perform certain actions multiple times without having to repeat the code manually each time. There are three basic types of loops in C: while, for and do while. Here's how they work:

While Loop

The while loop executes its body as long as its controlling expression remains true. It can be written like this:

int main() {
    int x = 5;
    while(x > 0) {
        printf("Value of X is %d\n", x);
        x--;
    }
}

In this example, the loop will print out the value of 'X', which is initially set to 5, decrementing it by one every iteration until it reaches zero.

For Loop

A more common type of loop is the for loop. This is used when we know beforehand the number of iterations needed. Its syntax looks like this:

for(int i=5;i>0;i--)
{
   // Code
}

Here, the for statement declares a counter variable called 'i', initializes it with a starting value of 5, tests if the current value of 'i' is less than 0 (which will be false after five passes), and increments 'i' at the end of each pass through the loop.

Do While Loop

Finally, there is also the do while loop, where the checking of the condition comes after the execution of the loop body:

do
{
     // Code here
}
while (condition);

This means that the loop always runs once before the test is made, regardless of what the initial state was.

All these loops give us flexibility over repetition without making our program unnecessarily complex.