Print the Elements of a Vector using Loop in R

A while loop is a fundamental control structure in programming that allows us to repeatedly execute a block of code as long as a specified condition remains true. It's often used for tasks like iterating over elements in a data structure, such as printing the elements of a vector. The loop continues to execute until the condition evaluates to false.

In this article, we will discuss how to print the elements of a vector with its working example in the R Programming Language using R while loop.

Syntax:

vector <- c(...)  # Replace ... with the vector elements
i <- 1
while (i <= length(vector)) {
  cat(vector[i], " ")
  i <- i + 1
}

Example 1: while loop to print the elements of a vector

vector <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

i <- 1

while (i <= length(vector)) {
  cat(vector[i], " ")
  i <- i + 1
}

Output:

1  2  3  4  5  

• Create a vector named vector with the given elements.
• Initialize a variable i to 1 to represent the index of the vector.
• Start a while loop that continues as long as the value of i is less than or equal to the length of the vector.
• Print the element of the vector at index i using the cat() function.
• Increment the value of i by 1 for the next iteration.
• End of the while loop.

Example 2: while loop to print the elements of a string value vector

vector <- c("apple", "banana", "cherry", "date")

i <- 1

while (i <= length(vector)) {
  cat(vector[i], " ")
  i <- i + 1
}

Output:

apple  banana  cherry  date  

Example 3 Using a while loop with indexing

vector <- c(10, 20, 30, 40, 50)
index <- 1

while (index <= length(vector)) {
  print(vector[index])
  index <- index + 1
}

Output:

[1] 10
[1] 20
[1] 30
[1] 40
[1] 50

• while (index <= length(vector)) { ... }: This line starts a while loop. The loop will continue executing as long as the condition index <= length(vector) is TRUE. This ensures that the loop will iterate through the vector's elements until the index reaches the vector's length.
• print(vector[index]): Inside the loop, this line prints the element of the vector at the current index.
• index <- index + 1: After printing the element, this line increments the index by 1. This prepares the loop for the next iteration, moving to the next element in the vector.

Example 4 Using a while loop with vector slicing

vector <- c(10, 20, 30, 40, 50)
index <- 1

while (index <= length(vector)) {
  print(vector[1:index])
  index <- index + 1
}

Output:

[1] 10
[1] 10 20
[1] 10 20 30
[1] 10 20 30 40
[1] 10 20 30 40 50

• while (index <= length(vector)) { ... }: This line starts a while loop. The loop will continue executing as long as the condition index <= length(vector) is TRUE.
• print(vector[index]): Inside the loop, this line prints the element of the vector at the current index.