Decision Control Structures and Loop Structures
Selection (IF STATEMENTS)
The if statements allows branching (decision making) depending upon the value or state of
variables. This allows statements to be executed or skipped, depending upon decisions.
The basic format is,
if( expression )
{ program statement; }
Nested If Else
Test for multiple cases by placing if/else selection structures inside if/else selection
[Link] condition is met, rest of statements skipped
The general format is
if( condition 1 )
statement1;
else if( condition 2 )
statement2;
else if( condition 3 )
statement3;
else
statement4;
Switch Case
The switch case statement is a better way of writing a program when a series of if elses
occurs. The general format for this is,
switch ( expression )
{ case value1:
program statement;
program statement;
......
break;
case valuen:
program statement;
.......
break;
default:
.......
.......
break;
}
The keyword break must be included at the end of each case statement. The default clause
is optional, and is executed if the cases are not met. The right brace at the end signifies the
end of the case selections.
Rules for switch statements
values for 'case' must be integer or character [Link] order of the 'case' statements is
unimportant
Loops structures
1. for loop
for (expr1; expr2; expr3)
{statement/s;}
Grammatically, the three components of a for loop are expressions. Most commonly, expr1
and expr3 are assignments or function calls and expr2 is a relational expression. Any of the
three parts can be omitted, although the semicolons must remain. If expr1 or expr3 is
omitted, it is simply dropped from the expansion. If the test, expr2, is not present, it is taken
as permanently true, so
for (;;) {
...
}
is an ``infinite'' loop, presumably to be broken by other means, such as a break or return.
The for is preferable when there is a simple initialization and increment since it keeps the
loop control statements close together and visible at the top of the loop. This is most obvious
in
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
{...}
2. while loop
while (expression)
{statement/s;}
the expression is evaluated. If it is non-zero, statement is executed and expression is re-
evaluated. This cycle continues until expression becomes zero, at which point execution
resumes after statement.
3. do..while loop
The syntax of the do is
do
{statement/s;}
while (expression);
The statement is executed, then expression is evaluated. If it is true, statement is evaluated
again, and so on. When the expression becomes false, the loop [Link] while and
for loops test the termination condition at the [Link] do-while, tests at the bottom after
making each pass through the loop body; the body is always executed at least [Link]
for and while loop are pre-test loops and do..while is a post test loop.
4. Odd Loop/Unusual Loop
In C programming, the term odd loop or unusual loop often refers to a loop where the
number of iterations is not predetermined or fixed at the start, but rather depends on a
condition that changes during the loop's execution, often based on user input or external
factors.
//program to demonstrate odd loop
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
int main()
{
int sum=0,n;
char ch;
do
{
printf("Enter the number");
scanf("%d",&n); //5
sum+=n; //sum=5
printf("Sum is %d",sum); //5
// fflush(stdin);
printf("\nDo you want to add another number?(Y/N):-");
scanf("%c",&ch);
}while(ch=='y' || ch =='Y');
return 0;
}
Break statement
A break statement terminates the execution of the [Link] control is transferred to the
statement immediately following the loop.
Consider a program to calculate sum of positive integers entered by the user.
Code Using while loop
scanf(“%d”,&i);
while(i!=-1)
{
sum+=i;
scanf(“%d”,&i);
}
Alternate code using break to eliminate 2 scanf statements
while(1)
{scanf(“%d”,&i);
if(i==-1)
break;
sum+=i;
}
Whenever -1 is input,the condition i==-1 evaluates to [Link] break statement is executed
causing the execution of the loop to be [Link] passes to the statement following
the
while [Link] condition is while is given as 1 which is non-zero and hence is always
[Link] specifies an infinite [Link] statement terminates its execution
Continue statement
It is used to bypass the remainder of the current pass/iteration through a [Link] loop does
not terminate when a continue statement is [Link] remaining loop statements are
skipped and the execution proceeds to the next pass/iteration .