Loops and Iteration

n=5 Repeated Steps

Output:
No Yes Program:
n>0? 5
n=5 4
print(n) while n > 0 : 3
print(n)
n=n–1 2
n = n -1 print('Blastoff!') 1
print(n) Blastoff!
0
Loops (repeated steps) have iteration variables that
print('Blastoff') change each time through a loop. Often these iteration
variables go through a sequence of numbers.
 n=5 An Infinite Loop
No Yes
n>0?
n=5
while n > 0 :
print('Lather')
print('Lather')
print('Rinse')
print('Rinse') print('Dry off!')

print('Dry off!') What is wrong with this loop?

 n=0 Another Loop
No Yes
n>0?
n=0
while n > 0 :
print('Lather')
print('Lather')
print('Rinse')
print('Rinse') print('Dry off!')

print('Dry off!') What is this loop doing?

 Breaking Out of a Loop
• The break statement ends the current loop and jumps to the
statement immediately following the loop

• It is like a loop test that can happen anywhere in the body of the
loop
while True: > hello there
line = input('> ') hello there
if line == 'done' : > finished
break finished
print(line) > done
print('Done!') Done!
 Breaking Out of a Loop
• The break statement ends the current loop and jumps to the
statement immediately following the loop

• It is like a loop test that can happen anywhere in the body of the
loop
while True: > hello there
line = input('> ') hello there
if line == 'done' : > finished
break finished
print(line) > done
print('Done!') Done!
 No Yes
while True: True ?
line = input('> ')
if line == 'done' : ....
break
print(line)
print('Done!')
break

...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transporter_(Star_Trek)
print('Done')
 Finishing an Iteration with
continue
The continue statement ends the current iteration and jumps to the
top of the loop and starts the next iteration

while True:
> hello there
line = input('> ')
hello there
if line[0] == '#' :
continue > # don't print this
if line == 'done' : > print this!
break print this!
print(line) > done
print('Done!') Done!
 Finishing an Iteration with
continue
The continue statement ends the current iteration and jumps to the
top of the loop and starts the next iteration

while True:
> hello there
line = input('> ')
hello there
if line[0] == '#' :
continue > # don't print this
if line == 'done' : > print this!
break print this!
print(line) > done
print('Done!') Done!
 No
True ? Yes
while True:
line = raw_input('> ')
....
if line[0] == '#' :
continue
if line == 'done' : continue
break
print(line) ...
print('Done!')

print('Done')
 Indefinite Loops
• While loops are called “indefinite loops” because they keep
going until a logical condition becomes False

• The loops we have seen so far are pretty easy to examine to

see if they will terminate or if they will be “infinite loops”

• Sometimes it is a little harder to be sure if a loop will

terminate
DEFINITE LOOPS
 Definite Loops
• Quite often we have a list of items of the lines in a file -
effectively a finite set of things

• We can write a loop to run the loop once for each of the
items in a set using the Python for construct

• These loops are called “definite loops” because they execute

an exact number of times

• We say that “definite loops iterate through the members of a

set”
 A Simple Definite Loop
5
for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] :
print(i)
4
print('Blastoff!') 3
2
1
Blastoff!
 A Definite Loop with Strings

Happy New Year: Joseph

friends = ['Joseph', 'Glenn', 'Sally'] Happy New Year: Glenn
for friend in friends : Happy New Year: Sally
print('Happy New Year:', friend)
print('Done!')
Done!
 A Simple Definite Loop
Yes No
Done? Move i ahead 5
for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] : 4
print(i) 3
print(i) print('Blastoff!')
2
1
Blastoff!

Definite loops (for loops) have explicit iteration variables

print('Blast off!') that change each time through a loop. These iteration
variables move through the sequence or set.
 Looking at in...
• The iteration variable
“iterates” thRough the Five-element
sequence (ordered set) sequence
Iteration variable
• The block (body) of code is
executed once for each
for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] :
value in the sequence print(i)

• The iteration variable moves

through all of the values in
the sequence
 No • The iteration variable “iterates”
Yes
Done? Move i ahead through the sequence (ordered
set)
print(i)
• The block (body) of code is
executed once for each value in
the sequence

• The iteration variable moves

through all of the values in the
for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] :
sequence
print(i)
 i=5
No print(i)
Yes
Done? Move i ahead i=4
print(i)
print(i)
i=3
print(i)

i=2

for i in [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] : print(i)

print(i)
i=1
print(i)
 Loop Idioms:
What We Do in Loops

Note: Even though these examples are simple,

the patterns apply to all kinds of loops
 Making “smart” loops
Set some variables to
initial values
for thing in data:
The trick is “knowing” something
Look for something or
about the whole loop when you
do something to each
are stuck writing code that only
entry separately,
sees one entry at a time updating a variable

Look at the variables

 Looping Through a Set
$ python basicloop.py
print('Before')
Before
for thing in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] : 9
print(thing) 41
print('After')
12
3
74
15
After
 FINDING THE LARGEST
VALUE $ python largest.py
largest_so_far = -1 Before -1
print('Before', largest_so_far)
9 9
for the_num in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] :
if the_num > largest_so_far : 41 41
largest_so_far = the_num 41 12
print(largest_so_far, the_num) 41 3
74 74
print('After', largest_so_far) 74 15
After 74

We make a variable that contains the largest value we have seen so far. If the current
number we are looking at is larger, it is the new largest value we have seen so far.
MORE LOOP PATTERNS…
 Counting in a Loop
$ python countloop.py
zork = 0 Before 0
print('Before', zork) 19
for thing in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] : 2 41
zork = zork + 1
print(zork, thing)
3 12
print('After', zork) 43
5 74
6 15
After 6

To count how many times we execute a loop, we introduce a counter variable

that starts at 0 and we add one to it each time through the loop.
 Summing in a Loop
$ python countloop.py
zork = 0 Before 0
print('Before', zork) 99
for thing in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] : 50 41
zork = zork + thing
print(zork, thing)
62 12
print('After', zork) 65 3
139 74
154 15
After 154

To add up a value we encounter in a loop, we introduce a sum variable that

starts at 0 and we add the value to the sum each time through the loop.
 Finding the Average in a Loop
$ python averageloop.py
count = 0 Before 0 0
sum = 0 199
print('Before', count, sum)
for value in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] :
2 50 41
count = count + 1 3 62 12
sum = sum + value 4 65 3
print(count, sum, value) 5 139 74
print('After', count, sum, sum / count) 6 154 15
After 6 154 25.666

An average just combines the counting and sum patterns and

divides when the loop is done.
 Filtering in a Loop
print('Before') $ python search1.py
for value in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] : Before
if value > 20: Large number 41
print('Large number',value)
Large number 74
print('After')
After

We use an if statement in the loop to catch / filter the

values we are looking for.
 Search Using a Boolean Variable
$ python search1.py
Before False
found = False
print('Before', found) False 9
for value in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] : False 41
if value == 3 : False 12
found = True True 3
print(found, value) True 74
print('After', found) True 15
After True

If we just want to search and know if a value was found, we use a variable that
starts at False and is set to True as soon as we find what we are looking for.
 HOW TO FIND THE
SMALLEST VALUE $ python largest.py
largest_so_far = -1 Before -1
print('Before', largest_so_far)
9 9
for the_num in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] :
if the_num > largest_so_far : 41 41
largest_so_far = the_num 41 12
print(largest_so_far, the_num) 41 3
74 74
print('After', largest_so_far) 74 15
After 74

How would we change this to make it find the smallest value in the list?
 FINDING THE SMALLEST
VALUE
smallest_so_far = -1
print('Before', smallest_so_far)
for the_num in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] :
if the_num < smallest_so_far :
smallest_so_far = the_num
print(smallest_so_far, the_num)

print('After', smallest_so_far)

We switched the variable name to smallest_so_far and switched the > to <
 FINDING THE SMALLEST
VALUE $ python smallbad.py
smallest_so_far = -1 Before -1
print('Before', smallest_so_far)
-1 9
for the_num in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] :
if the_num < smallest_so_far : -1 41
smallest_so_far = the_num -1 12
print(smallest_so_far, the_num) -1 3
-1 74
print('After', smallest_so_far) -1 15
After -1

We switched the variable name to smallest_so_far and switched the > to <
 FINDING THE SMALLEST
VALUE
smallest = None $ python smallest.py
print('Before') Before
for value in [9, 41, 12, 3, 74, 15] : 99
if smallest is None : 9 41
smallest = value
elif value < smallest :
9 12
smallest = value 33
print(smallest, value) 3 74
print('After', smallest) 3 15
After 3

We still have a variable that is the smallest so far. The first time through the loop
smallest is None, so we take the first value to be the smallest.