ive been looking around the forums and i havent seen this one yet.
is a for loop better to use then a while loop?
are there situations when you would want to use one over the other?
or is it all syntax?
thanks in advance.
~M.I.
ive been looking around the forums and i havent seen this one yet.
is a for loop better to use then a while loop?
are there situations when you would want to use one over the other?
or is it all syntax?
thanks in advance.
~M.I.
Really? I thought it had been done to death.Originally Posted by MikeyIckey
Yes. No. Use whichever fits the loop best. That is, if you are going from here to there, a for loop seems quite well suited for the task. If you are looping until some condition is met, a while loop may be better suited.
Preference to a degree. I'd say it mostly has to do with whether your loop needs an initial condition and/or specific "increment" or not.
7. It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.
40. There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.*
cool, thanks for the insight!
Now you're gonna ask yourself, when should I use:
and when should I use:Code:while ( condition ) { ... }
Code:do { ... } while ( condition )
It used to be that for-loops where slightly better optimized (this is about 15 years ago, when compilers had to live in DOS where 640K was the limit, and non-PC machines has a few MB of RAM to share between different apps & users). In such a system, the compiler will not be able to do advanced optimizations that require building multiple large code-paths and check which is faster/better/shorter (whichever applies) - or if it did, it would make the compiler seriously slow, and whilst optimization is nice, having a compile that finishes the same day you started it is also useful.
Nowadays, using a modern compiler, if you do the same work, you most likely end up with the same code, as long as you go about it in a reasonably similar way.
Some "interesting" uses of for & while:
--Code:for(;;) ... // same as while(1) for(p = head; p; p = p->next) ... // Walk through a linked list from head to tail. // Same code using while... p = head; while(p) { ... p = p->next; } for(i = 0; i < 10; i++) ... // Same code using while using ugly coding style i = -1; while(i++, i < 10) ... // Alternatively: i = 0; while(i < 10) { ... i++; }
Mats
Compilers can produce warnings - make the compiler programmers happy: Use them!
Please don't PM me for help - and no, I don't do help over instant messengers.
thanks guys, i really appreciate the help.
