MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),

MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

1. Flow of Control

The order of execution of the statements in a program is known as flow of control. The flow
of control can be implemented using control structures. Python supports two types of control
structures—selection and repetition.
Let us consider a program 1 that executes in sequence, that is, statements are
executed in an order in which they are written.

Program 1: Program to print the difference of two numbers.

#Program to print the difference of two input numbers

num1 = int(input("Enter first number: "))

num2 = int(input("Enter second number: ")) diff = num1 - num2
print("The difference of ",num1,"and ",num2,"is ",diff)

Output:

Enter first number 5 Enter second number 7

The difference of 5 and 7 is -2

1.1 SELECTION
A decision involves selecting from one of the two
or more possible options. In programming, this
concept of decision making or selection is
implemented with the help of if..else statement.
Now, suppose we want to display the positive
difference of the two numbers num1 and num2
given at program 1. For that, we need to modify
our approach. Look at the flowchart shown in
Figure 1 that subtracts the smaller number from
the bigger number so that we always get a
positive difference. This selection is based upon
the values that are input for the two numbers
num1 and num2.

Figure 1: Flow chart depicting decision making

 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

The syntax of i f statement is:

if condition:
statement(s)

In the following example, if the age entered by the user is greater than 18, then print that
the user is eligible to vote. If the condition is true, then the indented statement(s) are
executed. The indentation implies that its execution is dependent on the condition. There is
no limit on the number of statements that can appear as a block under the if statement.
Example 1
age = int(input("Enter your age "))
if age >= 18:
print("Eligible to vote")

A variant of if statement called if..else statement allows us to write two alternative paths and the
control condition determines which path gets executed.

The syntax for if..else statement is as follows.

if condition:
statement(s)
else:
statement(s)
Let us now modify the example on voting with the condition that if the age entered by the user
is greater than 18, then to display that the user is eligible to vote. Otherwise display that the
user is not eligible to vote.

age = int(input("Enter your age: "))

if age >= 18:
print("Eligible to vote")
else:
print("Not eligible to vote")

Now let us use the same concept to modify program 1, so that it always gives a
positive difference as the output. From the flow chart in Figure 1, it is clear that we need
to decide whether num1 > num2 or not and take action accordingly.
We have to specify two blocks of statements since num1 can be greater than num2 or
vice-versa as shown in program 2.
 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Program 2: Program to print the positive difference of two numbers.

#Program to print the positive difference of two numbers

num1 = int(input("Enter first number: "))
num2 = int(input("Enter second number: ")) if num1 > num2:
diff = num1 - num2
else:
diff = num2 - num1
print("The difference of",num1,"and",num2,"is",diff)
Output:
Enter first number: 5 Enter second number: 6
The difference of 5 and 6 is 1

Many a times there are situations that require multiple conditions to be checked and it may
lead to many alternatives. In such cases we can chain the conditions using if..elif (elif means
else..if).
The syntax for a selection structure using elif is as shown below.

if condition:
statement(s)
elif condition:
statement(s)
elif condition:
statement(s)
else:
statement(s)

Example 2 Check whether a number is positive, negative, or zero.

number = int(input("Enter a number: ")
if number > 0:
print("Number is positive")
elif number < 0:
print("Number is negative")
else:
print("Number is zero")
 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Example 3 Display the appropriate message as per the color of signal at the road
crossing.
signal = input("Enter the color: ")
if signal == "red" or signal == "RED":
print("STOP")
elif signal == "orange" or signal == "ORANGE":
print("Be Slow")
elif signal == "green" or signal == "GREEN":
print("Go!")

Number of elif is dependent on the number of conditions to be checked. If the first

condition is false, then the next condition is checked, and so on. If one of the conditions is
true, then the corresponding indented block executes, and the if statement terminates.
Let us write a program to create a simple calculator to perform basic arithmetic
operations on two numbers. The program should do the following:

• Accept two numbers from the user.

• Ask user to input any of the operator (+, -, *, /). An error message is displayed if
the user enters anything else.
• Display only positive difference in case of the operator "-".
• Display a message “Please enter a value other than 0” if the user enters the
second number as 0 and operator ‘/’ is entered.

Program 3: Write a program to create a simple calculator performing only four basic
operations.
result = 0
val1 = float(input("Enter value 1: ")) val2 = float(input("Enter value 2: "))
op = input("Enter any one of the operator (+,-,*,/): ") if op == "+":
result = val1 + val2 elif op == "-":
if val1 > val2:
result = val1 - val2 else:
result = val2 - val1 elif op == "*":
result = val1 * val2 elif op == "/":
if val2 == 0:
print("Error! Division by zero is not allowed. Program terminated")
else:
result = val1/val2
else:
print("Wrong input,program terminated") print("The result is ",result)
 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Output:
Enter value 1: 84
Enter value 2: 4
Enter any one of the operator (+,-,*,/): /
The result is 21.0
In the program, for the operators "-" and "/", there exists an if..else condition within the elif
block. This is called nested if. We can have many levels of nesting inside if..else
statements.

INDENTATION
In most programming languages, the statements within a block are put inside curly
brackets. However, Python uses indentation for block as well as for nested block
structures. Leading whitespace (spaces and tabs) at the beginning of a statement is
called indentation. In Python, the same level of indentation associates statements
into a single block of code. The interpreter checks indentation levels very strictly and
throws up syntax errors if indentation is not correct. It is a common practice to use a single
tab for each level of indentation. In the program 6-4, the if-else statement has two blocks of
statements and the statements in each block are indented with the same amount of
spaces or tabs.
Program 4 Program to find the larger of the two pre-specified numbers.
num1 = 5
num2 = 6
if num1 > num2: #Block1
print("first number is larger")
else: #Block2
print("second number is larger")
Output:
second number is larger
1.2 REPETITION
Often, we repeat a tasks, for example, payment of electricity bill, which is done
every [Link] kind of repetition is also called iteration. Repetition of a set of
statements in a program is made possible using looping constructs. To understand
further, let us look at the program 5.
 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Program 5 Write a program to print the first five natural numbers.

#Print first five natural numbers
print(1)
print(2)
print(3)
print(4)
print(5)
Output:
1
2
3
4
5
What should we do if we are asked to print the first 100,000 natural numbers?
Writing 100,000 print statements would not be an efficient solution. It would be tedious
and not the best way to do the task. Writing a program having a loop or repetition is a
better solution. The program logic is given below:
1. Take a variable, say count, and set its value to 1.
2. Print the value of count.
3. Increment the variable (count += 1).

Repeat steps 2 and 3 as long as count has a value less than or equal to 100,000 (count <=
100,000). Looping constructs provide the facility to execute a set of statements in a
program repetitively, based on a condition. The statements in a loop are executed again
and again as long as particular logical condition remains true. This condition is checked
based on the value of a variable called the loop’s control variable. When the condition
becomes false, the loop terminates. It is the responsibility of the programmer to ensure that
this condition eventually does become false so that there is an exit condition and it does not
become an infinite loop. For example, if we did not set the condition count <= 100000, the
program would have never stopped. There are two looping constructs in Python - for and
while.
 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

1.2.1. The ‘For’ Loop

The for statement is used to iterate over a
range of values or a sequence. The forloop is
executed for each of the items in the range.
These values can be either numeric, or, as
we shall see in later chapters, they can be
elements of a data type like a string, list, or
tuple.
With every iteration of the loop, the control
variable checks whether each of the values
in the range have been traversed or not. When
all the items in the range are exhausted, the
statements within loop are not executed; the
control is then transferred to the statement
immediately following the for loop. While using
for loop, it is known in advance the number
of times the loop will execute. The flowchart
depicting the execution of a for loop is given
in Figure 2.
Syntax of the For Loop
for <control-variable> in <sequence/ items in range>:
<statements inside body of the loop

Figure.2: Flow chart of for loop

Program 6 Program to print the characters in the string ‘PYTHON’ using for loop

for letter in 'PYTHON':

print(letter)
Output:
P
Y
T
H
O
N
 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Program 7 Program to print the numbers in a given sequence using forloop.

count = [10,20,30,40,50]
for num in count:
print(num)
Output:
10
20
30
40
50

Program 8: Program to print even numbers in a given sequence using forloop.

numbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
for num in numbers:
if (num % 2) == 0:
print(num,'is an even Number')
Output:
2 is an even Number
4 is an even Number
6 is an even Number
8 is an even Number
10 is an even Number

The Range() Function

The range() is a built-in function in Python. Syntax of range() function is:
range([start], stop[, step])

It is used to create a list containing a sequence of integers from the given start value upto stop
value (excluding stop value), with a difference of the given step value. We will learn about
functions in the next chapter. To begin with, simply remember that function takes parameters
to work on. In function range(), start, stop and step are parameters.
The start and step parameters are optional. If start value is not specified, by default the list
starts from 0. If step is also not specified, by default the value increases by 1 in each iteration.
All parameters of range() function must be integers. The step parameter can be a positive or
a negative integer excluding zero.
 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Example 6.4
#start and step not specified
>>> list(range(10))
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

#default step value is 1

>>> list(range(2, 10))
[2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

#step value is 5
>>> list(range(0, 30, 5))
[0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25]

#step value is -1. Hence, decreasing #sequence is generated

>>> list (range (0, -9, -1))
[0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8]
The function range() is often used in for loops for generating a sequence of numbers.

Program 9 Program to print the multiples of 10 for numbers in a given range.

for num in range(5):
if num > 0:
print(num * 10)
Output:
10
20
30
40
MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

6.1.1 The ‘While’ Loop

The while statement executes a block of code repeatedly as long as the control condition of
the loop is true. The control condition of the while
loop is executed before any
statement inside the loop is
executed. After each iteration,
the control condition is tested
again and the loop continues as
long as the condition remains
true. When this condition becomes
false, the statements in the body
of loop are not executed and the
control is transferred to the
statement immediately following
the body of while loop. If the
condition of the while loop is
initially false, the body is not
executed even once.

The statements within the

body of the while loop must Figure 6.5: Flow chart of while Loop
ensure that the condition
eventually becomes false; otherwise the loop will become an infinite loop, leading to a
logical error in the program. The flowchart of while loop is shown in Figure 6.5.
Syntax of whileLoop
while test_condition:
body of while
 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Program 10: Program to print first 5 natural numbers using while loop.
count = 1
while count <= 5: print(count) count += 1
Output:
1
2
3
4
5
Program 11: Program to find the factors of a whole number using while loop.
num = int(input("Enter a number to find its factor: "))
print (1, end=' ') #1 is a factor of every number factor = 2
while factor <= num/2:
if num % factor == 0:
#the optional parameter end of print function specifies the delimeter #blank space(' ') to print
next value #on same line
print(factor, end=' ') factor += 1
print (num, end=' ') #every number is a factor of itself
Output:
Enter a number to find its factors : 6
1236
Note: Body of the loop is indented with respect to the while statement. Similarly, the statements within
if are indented with respect to positioning of if statement.

2.1 BREAK AND CONTINUE STATEMENT

Looping constructs allow programmers to repeat tasks
efficiently. In certain situations, when some particular condition
occurs, we may want to exit from a loop (come
MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

out of the loop forever) or skip

some statements of the loop
before continuing further in the
loop. These requirements can be
achieved by using break and
continue statements,
respectively. Python provides
these statements as a tool to
give more flexibility to the
programmer to control the flow
of execution of a program.
6.2.1 Break Statement
The break statement alters the
normal flow of execution as it Figure 6.5: Flowchart for using break statement in loop
terminates the current
loop and resumes execution of the statement following that loop.

Program 12: Program to demonstrate use of break

statement.
#Program 6-12
#Program to demonstrate the use of break statement in loop num = 0
for num in range(10): num = num + 1 if num == 8:
break
print('Num has value ' + str(num)) print('Encountered break!! Out of loop')
Output:
Num has value 1 Num has value 2 Num has value 3 Num has value 4 Num has value 5 Num has value 6
Num has value 7
Encountered break!! Out of loop
Note: When value of numbecomes 8, the breakstatement is executed and the for loop terminates.
MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Program 13: Find the sum of all the positive numbers entered by the user. As soon as
the user enters a negative number, stop taking in any further input from
the user and display the sum.
entry = 0
sum1 = 0
print("Enter numbers to find their sum, negative number ends the
loop:") while True:
#int() typecasts string to integer entry = int(input())
if (entry < 0): break
sum1 += entry
print("Sum =", sum1)
Output:
Enter numbers to find their sum, negative number ends the loop: 3
4
5
-1
Sum = 12
Program 14: Program to check if the input number is prime or not.
num = int(input("Enter the number to be checked: "))
flag = 0 #presume num is a prime number
if num > 1 :
for i in range(2, int(num / 2)):
if (num % i == 0):
flag = 1 #num is a not prime number
break #no need to check any further
if flag == 1:
print(num , "is not a prime number")
else:
print(num , "is a prime number")
else:
print("Entered number is <= 1, execute again!")
MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Output 1:Enter the number to be checked: 20

20 is not a prime number
Output 2:
Enter the number to check: 19
19 is a prime number
Output 3:
Enter the number to check: 2
2 is a prime number
Output 4:
Enter the number to check: 1
Entered number is <= 1, execute again!

6.2.2 Continue Statement

When a continue statement is
encountered, the control skips the
execution of remaining statements
inside the body of the loop for the
current iteration and jumps to the
beginning of the loop for the next
iteration. If the loop’s condition is
still true, the loop is entered again,
else the control is transferred to the
statement immediately following
the [Link] 6.7 shows the
flowchart of continue statement.
.

Figure 6.6: Flow chart of continue statement

 MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Program 15: Program to demonstrate the use of continue statement.

num = 0
for num in range(6): zum = num + 1
if num == 3:

continue
print('Num has value ' + str(num))
print('End of loop')
Output:
Num has value 1 Num has value 2 Num has value 4 Num has value 5 Num has value 6 End of
loop
Observe that the value 3 is not printed in the output, but the loop continues after the continue
statement to print other values till the forloop terminates.

NESTED LOOPS
A loop may contain another loop inside it. A loop inside another loop is called a nested loop.
Program 16: Program to demonstrate working of nested for loops.
for var1 in range(3):
print( "Iteration " + str(var1 + 1) + " of outer loop") for var2 in range(2): #nested loop
print(var2 + 1) print("Out of inner loop")
print("Out of outer loop")

Output:
Iteration 1 of outer loop
1
2
Out of inner loop Iteration 2 of outer loop 1
2
Out of inner loop Iteration 3 of outer loop 1
2
Out of inner loop Out of outer loop
MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Python does not impose any restriction on how many loops can be nested inside a
loop or on the levels of nesting. Any type of loop (for/while) may be nested within another
loop (for/while).
Program 17: Program to print the pattern for a number input by the user.
#1
#1 2
#1 2 3
#1 2 3 4
#1 2 3 4 5
num = int(input("Enter a number to generate its pattern = ")) for i in range(1,num + 1):
for j in range(1,i + 1): print(j, end = " ")
print()
Output:
Enter a number to generate its pattern = 5 1
1 2
1 2 3
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 45
Program18: Program to find prime numbers between 2 to 50 using nested for loops.

num = 2
for i in range(2, 50):
j= 2
while ( j <= (i/2)):
if (i % j == 0): #factor found
break #break out of while loop j += 1
if ( j > i/j) : #no factor found
print ( i, "is a prime number")
Output:
2 is a prime number
3 is a prime number
5 is a prime number
7 is a prime number
11 is a prime number
13 is a prime number
17 is a prime number
19 is a prime number
MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

23 is a prime number
29 is a prime number
31 is a prime number
37 is a prime number
41 is a prime number
43 is a prime number
47 is a prime number

Program 19: Write a program to calculate the factorial of a given number.

num = int(input("Enter a number: ")) fact = 1

# check if the number is negative, positive or zero
if num < 0:
print("Sorry, factorial does not exist for negative numbers")
elif num == 0:
print("The factorial of 0 is 1")
else:
for i in range(1, num + 1): fact = fact * i
print("factorial of ", num, " is ", fact)
Output:
Enter a number: 5 Factorial of 5 is 120

6.2.3 Pass Statement

The pass statement is used as a placeholder for future code. When the pass statement
is executed, nothing happens, but you avoid getting an error when empty code is not
allowed. Empty code is not allowed in loops, function definitions, class definitions, or
in if statements.

Example 1: Using the pass keyword in a function definition:

def myfunction():
pass # No operation is performed
MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY),
MULLANA (AMBALA)

Programme: BCA
Course: BCA-402: Python Programming

Example 2: Using the pass keyword in an if statement:

a = 33
b = 200

if b > a:
pass # No operation is performed

Example 3: Using the pass keyword in for statement:

for i in range(5):
pass # No operation is performed