7. Loops

Loops execute a block of code until some condition is met. The two most common types of loops are for and while. The jumps and conditional jumps that you have seen so far have been jumping forward. The loops jump backward. First, let's understand the functionality of a for loop. The general form of a for loop is shown here:

for (initialization; condition; update_statement ) {
    block of code
}

Here's how the for statement works. The initialization statement is executed only once, after which the condition is evaluated; if the condition is true, the block of code inside the for loop is executed, and then the update_statement is executed.

A while loop is the same as a for loop. In for, the initialization, condition, and update_statment are specified together, whereas in a while loop, the initialization is kept separate from the condition check, and the update_statement is specified inside the loop. The general form of a while loop is shown here:

initialization
while (condition)
{
 ...