C Programming

Lecture 4: Loop Control ⟲

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Outline

1 Loops
while loop
do-while loop
for loop
Examples of Loops

2 Miscellaneous

3 How to Debug

C Programming 2 / 50
 An opening example
• Calculate S = 5x=1 x12
P

• Based on what we learn, we do it in following way

1 i n t main ( )
2 {
3 int x = 1;
4 double S = 0;
5 S += 1 . 0 / ( x ∗ x ) ;
6 x += 1 ;
7 S += 1 . 0 / ( x ∗ x ) ; • It is okay when the number
8 x += 1 ;
9 S += 1 . 0 / ( x ∗ x ) ; of terms is small
10 x += 1 ; • How about 1000 terms ...
11 S += 1 . 0 / ( x ∗ x ) ;
12 x += 1 ; • Share the story
13 S += 1 . 0 / ( x ∗ x ) ;
14 p r i n t f ( ”S = % l f \n” , S ) ;
15 return 0;
16 }

C Programming 3 / 50
 Motivation of loops

• In the above example

• Following statement repeated for 5 times, only x changes each time
1 x += 1 ;
2 S += 1 . 0 / ( x ∗ x ) ;

• We can put it inside a loop

• Tell the loop that how many times we want to repeat
1 x = 0;
2 w h i l e ( x <= 4 )
3 {
4 x += 1 ;
5 S += 1 . 0 / ( x ∗ x ) ;
6 }

C Programming 4 / 50
Loops
• To repeat statements as long as a certain condition is true (non-zero)
• C offers 3 different loops
• We can replace one with another
• Different loop offers different convenience
while ( condition )
statement ;

do
statement ;
while ( condition ) ;

f o r ( i n i t i a l i z a t i o n ; condition ; statement )
statement ;

For multiple statements again, use braces.

C Programming 5 / 50
Outline

1 Loops
while loop
do-while loop
for loop
Examples of Loops

2 Miscellaneous

3 How to Debug

C Programming 6 / 50
while loop control (1)

• The execution checks if the condition is still non-zero

• If it is, execute the statement(s)
• Otherwise, gets out from the loop

zero
condition
non-zero

statement(s)

C Programming 7 / 50
 while loop control (2)
• The execution of checks if the condition is still non-zero
• If it is, execute the statement(s)
• Otherwise, gets out from the loop

1 int i = 2;
2 w h i l e ( i > 0)
3 −− i ;
4 p r i n t f ( ” done \n” ) ;

1 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3

2 Decrement i → i now is 1, go back to line 2
3 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3
4 Decrement i → i now is 0, go back to line 2
5 Check (i > 0) → false → go to line 4
6 Print done
C Programming 8 / 50
 while loop control (2)
• The execution of checks if the condition is still non-zero
• If it is, execute the statement(s)
• Otherwise, gets out from the loop

1 int i = 2;
2 w h i l e ( i > 0)
3 −− i ;
4 p r i n t f ( ” done \n” ) ;

1 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3

2 Decrement i → i now is 1, go back to line 2
3 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3
4 Decrement i → i now is 0, go back to line 2
5 Check (i > 0) → false → go to line 4
6 Print done
C Programming 8 / 50
 while loop control (2)
• The execution of checks if the condition is still non-zero
• If it is, execute the statement(s)
• Otherwise, gets out from the loop

1 int i = 2;
2 w h i l e ( i > 0)
3 −− i ;
4 p r i n t f ( ” done \n” ) ;

1 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3

2 Decrement i → i now is 1, go back to line 2
3 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3
4 Decrement i → i now is 0, go back to line 2
5 Check (i > 0) → false → go to line 4
6 Print done
C Programming 8 / 50
 while loop control (2)
• The execution of checks if the condition is still non-zero
• If it is, execute the statement(s)
• Otherwise, gets out from the loop

1 int i = 2;
2 w h i l e ( i > 0)
3 −− i ;
4 p r i n t f ( ” done \n” ) ;

1 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3

2 Decrement i → i now is 1, go back to line 2
3 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3
4 Decrement i → i now is 0, go back to line 2
5 Check (i > 0) → false → go to line 4
6 Print done
C Programming 8 / 50
 while loop control (2)
• The execution of checks if the condition is still non-zero
• If it is, execute the statement(s)
• Otherwise, gets out from the loop

1 int i = 2;
2 w h i l e ( i > 0)
3 −− i ;
4 p r i n t f ( ” done \n” ) ;

1 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3

2 Decrement i → i now is 1, go back to line 2
3 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3
4 Decrement i → i now is 0, go back to line 2
5 Check (i > 0) → false → go to line 4
6 Print done
C Programming 8 / 50
 while loop control (2)
• The execution of checks if the condition is still non-zero
• If it is, execute the statement(s)
• Otherwise, gets out from the loop

1 int i = 2;
2 w h i l e ( i > 0)
3 −− i ;
4 p r i n t f ( ” done \n” ) ;

1 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3

2 Decrement i → i now is 1, go back to line 2
3 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3
4 Decrement i → i now is 0, go back to line 2
5 Check (i > 0) → false → go to line 4
6 Print done
C Programming 8 / 50
 while loop control (2)
• The execution of checks if the condition is still non-zero
• If it is, execute the statement(s)
• Otherwise, gets out from the loop

1 int i = 2;
2 w h i l e ( i > 0)
3 −− i ;
4 p r i n t f ( ” done \n” ) ;

1 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3

2 Decrement i → i now is 1, go back to line 2
3 Check (i > 0) → true → go to line 3
4 Decrement i → i now is 0, go back to line 2
5 Check (i > 0) → false → go to line 4
6 Print done
C Programming 8 / 50
Check Prime Number (1)

• Check whether an integer number if a prime number

• Prime number: number that is only dividable by 1 and itself
• 81 is not a prime number; 173 is prime number
• Any idea to solve this problem??

5 minutes to think about this problem ...

C Programming 9 / 50
 Check Prime Number (2)
1 Start from 2 to N
2 Check whether N is dividable by any number in this range
1 i n t i = 2 , N = 177;
2 i n t PRIME = 1 ;
3 w h i l e ( i < N)
4 {
5 i f (N%i == 0 )
6 {
7 PRIME = 0 ;
8 }
9 }
10 i f ( PRIME )
11 p r i n t f ( ”%d i s a p r i m e number \n” , N) ;
12 else
13 p r i n t f ( ”%d i s n o t a p r i m e number \n” , N) ;

• Do we miss anything?

C Programming 10 / 50
 Check Prime Number (3)
1 Start from 2 to N
2 Check whether N is dividable by any number in this range

1 i n t i = 2 , N = 177;
2 i n t PRIME = 1 ;
3 w h i l e ( i < N)
4 {
5 i f (N%i == 0 )
6 {
7 PRIME = 0 ;
8 }
9 i ++;
10 }
11 i f ( PRIME )
12 p r i n t f ( ”%d i s a p r i m e number \n” , N) ;
13 else
14 p r i n t f ( ”%d i s n o t a p r i m e number \n” , N) ;

C Programming 11 / 50
 Check Prime Number (4)
1 In the above example, we no need to √all the numbers in [2· · · N-1]
2 N is not dividable by numbers after ⌈ N⌉
1 #i n c l u d e < s t d i o . h>
2 #i n c l u d e <math . h>
3 i n t main ( )
4 {
5 i n t i = 2 , N = 177;
6 i n t PRIME = 1 , bnd = ( i n t ) c e i l ( s q r t (N) ) ;
7 w h i l e ( i <= bnd )
8 {
9 i f (N%i == 0 )
10 {
11 PRIME = 0 ;
12 }
13 i ++;
14 }
15 i f ( PRIME )
16 p r i n t f ( ”%d i s a p r i m e number \n” , N) ;
17 else
18 p r i n t f ( ”%d i s n o t a p r i m e number \n” , N) ;
19 return 0;
20 }

C Programming 12 / 50
Outline

1 Loops
while loop
do-while loop
for loop
Examples of Loops

2 Miscellaneous

3 How to Debug

C Programming 13 / 50
 do...while (1)

• do...while executes the statement(s) first

• Checks the condition after each run

1 int i = 3; 1 int i = 3;
2 do 2 w h i l e ( i > 1)
3 { 3 {
4 −− i ; 4 −− i ;
5 p r i n t f ( ” i=%d\n” , i ) ; 5 p r i n t f ( ” i=%d\n” , i ) ;
6 } w h i l e ( i > 1) ; 6 }

• What is the output??

C Programming 14 / 50
 do...while (2)

• do...while executes the statement(s) first

• Checks the condition after each run

1 i =2 1 i =2
2 i =1 2 i =1

• What is the output??

C Programming 15 / 50
do...while (3)

• do...while executes the statement(s) first

• Checks the condition after each run

statement(s)

non-zero
condition
zero

C Programming 16 / 50
Example 1 (1)

√
• Calculate x = a
• xn+1 = 21 (xn + xa )
n
• Loop until error less than 10−5 in consecutive iterations
• Hints: x1 is an arbitrary positive value

3 minutes to think about this problem ...

C Programming 17 / 50
Example 1 (2)

√
• Calculate x = a
• xn+1 = 21 (xn + xa )
n
• Loop until error less than 10−5 in consecutive iterations
• Hints: x1 is an arbitrary positive value
1 We need a loop (while? do-while or for?)
2 We need to keep two results from consecutive iterations
3 Anything else??
4 Let’s do it!

C Programming 18 / 50
 Example 1 (3)
√
• Calculate x = a
• xn+1 = 21 (xn + xa )
n
• Loop until error less than 10−5 in consecutive iterations
• Hints: x1 is an arbitrary positive value

1 f l o a t a = 5 , x0 = 3 . 1 , xn = 0 , e r r = 0 ;
2 do
3 {
4 xn = 0 . 5 ∗ ( xn+a / xn ) ;
5 e r r = a b s ( xn − x0 ) ;
6 } w h i l e ( e r r >= 0 . 0 0 0 0 1 )
7 p r i n t f ( ” s q r t ( a )=%f \n” , xn ) ;

• Anything wrong??

C Programming 19 / 50
 Example 1 (4)
√
• Calculate x = a
• xn+1 = 21 (xn + xa )
n
• Loop until error less than 10−5 in consecutive iterations
• Hints: x1 is an arbitrary positive value
1 f l o a t a = 5 , xk = 0 , xn = 3 . 1 , e r r = 0 ;
2 int i = 0;
3 do
4 {
5 xk = xn ;
6 xn = 0 . 5 ∗ ( xk+a / xk ) ;
7 // p r i n t f (”% f \ t%f \ t%f \n ” , xk , xn , e r r ) ;
8 e r r = f a b s ( xn − xk ) ;
9 i ++;
10 } w h i l e ( e r r >= 0 . 0 0 0 0 1 ) ;
11 p r i n t f ( ” i t e r s = %d , s q r t ( a )=%f \n” , i , xn ) ;

• Use “fabs(.)” instead of “abs(.)”

C Programming 20 / 50
Outline

1 Loops
while loop
do-while loop
for loop
Examples of Loops

2 Miscellaneous

3 How to Debug

C Programming 21 / 50
for loop (1)
The For-Loop is comfortable for iterating. It takes three arguments.
• Initialization (i=0;)
• Condition (i < 5;)
• Iteration statement (i+=1)

START

initialize i = 0;

test i < 5;

body of loop

increment i++

C Programming 22 / 50
for loop (2)

• Consider a program printing the numbers 1 to 10:

int i ;
f o r ( i = 1 ; i <= 1 0 ; ++i )
{
p r i n t f ( ”%d\n” , i ) ;
}

• i starts from 1
• Check if i is less than or equal to 10
• Go into the loop if it is true (non-zeor)
• Increment i, e.g., i++ or i+=2

C Programming 23 / 50
break

• Similar as switch-case
• break can be used inside a loop
• Jumping out from the loop as soon as it is called

int i , s = 0;
f o r ( i = 1 ; i <= 1 0 ; ++i )
{
s += 2∗ i ;
i f ( i %4 == 0 )
break ;
}
p r i n t f ( ” s=%d\n” , s ) ;

C Programming 24 / 50
 continue

• Different from break

• continue can be ONLY used inside a loop
• Ingore statements followed, go to next round of loop

1 int i , s = 0; 1 int i , s = 0;
2 f o r ( i = 1 ; i <= 1 0 ; ++i ) 2 f o r ( i = 1 ; i <= 1 0 ; ++i )
3 { 3 {
4 s += 2∗ i ; 4 s += 2∗ i ;
5 i f ( i %4 == 0 ) 5 i f ( i %4 == 0 )
6 break ; 6 continue ;
7 } 7 }
8 p r i n t f ( ” s=%d\n” , s ) ; 8 p r i n t f ( ” s=%d\n” , s ) ;

C Programming 25 / 50
Outline

1 Loops
while loop
do-while loop
for loop
Examples of Loops

2 Miscellaneous

3 How to Debug

C Programming 26 / 50
Example 2 (1)

• Given following series of fraction

• 21 , 32 , 35 , 85 , 13 21
8 , 13 ,· · ·
• Work out the sum of first 20 terms

3 minutes to think about this problem ...

C Programming 27 / 50
 Example 2 (2)

• Given following series of fraction

• 21 , 32 , 35 , 85 , 13 21
8 , 13 ,· · ·
• Work out the sum of first 20 terms
• We observe that numerator is the sum of the numerators of last two
• The denominator is the sum of the denominators of last two
• We have following things first

1 f l o a t n1 = 2 , n2 = 3 ;
2 i n t d1 = 1 , d2 = 2 ;
3 f o r ( i = ? ; i <= 2 0 ; ++i )
4 {
5 ....
6 }

C Programming 28 / 50
 Example 2 (3)

• Given following series of fraction

• 21 , 32 , 35 , 85 , 13 21
8 , 13 ,· · ·
• Work out the sum of first 20 terms
• We need the variable to keep the result
• We need an iterator

1 f l o a t n1 = 2 , n2 = 3 ;
2 i n t d1 = 1 , d2 = 2 , i = 0 ;
3 f l o a t s = n1 / d1 + n2 / d2 ;
4 f o r ( i = ? ; i <= 2 0 ; ++i )
5 {
6 ....
7 }
8 p r i n t f ( ” s=%f \n” , s ) ;

C Programming 29 / 50
 Example 2 (4)
• Given following series of fraction
• 21 , 32 , 35 , 85 , 13 21
8 , 13 ,· · ·
• Work out the sum of first 20 terms
• We need an iterator, start from where??
• How to work out n1 and d1

1 f l o a t n1 = 2 , n2 = 3 ;
2 i n t d1 = 1 , d2 = 2 , i = 0 ;
3 f l o a t s = n1 / d1 + n2 / d2 ;
4 f o r ( i = ? ; i <= 2 0 ; ++i )
5 {
6 n1 = ? ;
7 d1 = ? ;
8 s += n1 / d1 ;
9 }
10 p r i n t f ( ” s=%f \n” , s ) ;

C Programming 30 / 50
 Example 2 (5)
• Given following series of fraction
• 21 , 32 , 35 , 85 , 13 21
8 , 13 ,· · ·
• Work out the sum of first 20 terms
• The full story
1 #i n c l u d e < s t d i o . h>
2 i n t main ( )
3 {
4 f l o a t n1 = 2 , n2 = 3 ;
5 i n t d1 = 1 , d2 = 2 , i = 0 ;
6 f l o a t s = n1 / d1 + n2 / d2 ;
7 f o r ( i = 3 ; i <= 2 0 ; ++i ) 15 p r i n t f ( ” s=%f \n” , s ) ;
8 { 16 return 0;
9 n2 = n1 + n2 ; 17 }
10 d2 = d1 + d2 ;
11 s += n2 / d2 ;
12 n1 = n2 − n1 ;
13 d1 = d2 − d1 ;
14 }
15 }

C Programming 31 / 50
Example 3 (1)

• Output following figure

*
***
*****
*******
*****
***
*

C Programming 32 / 50
Example 3 (2)

• On the 1st line, we print 3 blanks and 1 star

• On the 2nd line, we print 2 blanks and 3 stars
• On the 3rd line, we print 1 blanks and 5 stars
• On the 4th line, we print 0 blank and 7 stars
• Do the following in reverse...
• There should be a loop controls of printing blanks of one line
• There should be a loop controls of printing stars of one line
• There should be a loop controls of printing all the lines
• How to organize them??

C Programming 33 / 50
Example 3 (3)

• There should be a loop controls of printing blanks of one line

• There should be a loop controls of printing stars of one line
• There should be a loop controls of printing all the lines
• How to organize them??
1 Loop print all lines
2 Loop print blank(s)
3 Loop print star(s)
4 End-Loop

C Programming 34 / 50
 Example 3 (4)

1 Loop print all lines

2 Loop print blank(s)
3 Loop print star(s)
4 End-Loop
1 We need a bound for the number of stars
2 We need a bound for the number of blanks
1 int n = 7 , i = 0 , j = 0;
2 i n t n s = 1 , nb = n −1;
3 f o r ( i = 0 ; i < n ; i ++)
4 {
5 ...
6 }

C Programming 35 / 50
Example 3 (5)
1 Print things to the bounds
int n = 5 , i = 0 , j = 0; nb += 2 ; //<−−why ?
i n t n s = 1 , nb = n −1; n s −= 4 ; //<−−why ?
f o r ( i = 0 ; i < n ; i ++) f o r ( i = 0 ; i < n ; i ++)
{ {
f o r ( j = 0 ; j < nb ; j ++) f o r ( j = 0 ; j < nb ; j ++)
{ {
printf (” ”) ; printf (” ”) ;
} }
f o r ( j = 0 ; j < n s ; j ++) f o r ( j = 0 ; j < n s ; j ++)
{ {
p r i n t f ( ”∗” ) ; p r i n t f ( ”∗” ) ;
} }
n s += 2 ; n s −= 2 ;
nb−−; nb++;
p r i n t f ( ” \n” ) ; p r i n t f ( ” \n” ) ;
} }

C Programming 36 / 50
Example 4 (1): solving by exhaustive search

• 30 people dine together, 50 cents are paid

• It takes 3 cents for a gentleman
• It takes 2 cents for a lady
• It takes 1 cent for a child
• How many gentlemen, ladies and children are there

3 ∗ x + 2 ∗ y + z = 50
x + y + z = 30

• We are actually trying to solve linear equations

• Notice that only integer solutions are valid

C Programming 37 / 50
Example 4 (2): solving by exhaustive search

• Solution is, we enumerate all possible solution

• To see whether they satisfy all the equations

3 ∗ x + 2 ∗ y + z = 50
x + y + z = 30

• Enumerate x from 1 to 30
• Enumerate y from 1 to 30
• Enumerate z from 1 to 30
• Now let’s do it!

C Programming 38 / 50
Example 4 (3): solving by exhaustive search
• Enumerate x from 1 to 30
• Enumerate y from 1 to 30
• Enumerate z from 1 to 30

3 ∗ x + 2 ∗ y + z = 50
x + y + z = 30

f o r ( x = 0 ; x <= 3 0 ; x++)
{
f o r ( y = 0 ; y <= 3 0 ; y++)
{
f o r ( z = 0 ; z <= 3 0 ; z++)
{
....
}
}
}

C Programming 39 / 50
 Example 4 (4): solving by exhaustive search
1 #i n c l u d e < s t d i o . h>
2 i n t main ( )
3 {
4 i n t x = 0 , y = 0 , z = 0 , c1 = 0 , c2 = 0 ;
5 f o r ( x = 0 ; x <= 3 0 ; x++)
6 { f o r ( y = 0 ; y <= 3 0 ; y++)
7 { f o r ( z = 0 ; z <= 3 0 ; z++)
8 {
9 c1 = 3∗ x+2∗y+z ;
10 c2 = x+y+z ;
11 i f ( c1 == 50 && c2 == 3 0 )
12 {
13 p r i n t f ( ” x = %d , y = %d , z = %d\n” , x , y , z ) ;
14 }
15 } // f o r ( z )
16 } // f o r ( y )
17 } // f o r ( x )
18 }

C Programming 40 / 50
 Example 4 (5): solving by exhaustive search
1 #i n c l u d e < s t d i o . h>
2 i n t main ( )
3 {
4 i n t x = 0 , y = 0 , z = 0 , c1 = 0 , c2 = 0 ;
5 f o r ( x = 0 ; x < 1 7 ; x++) //<−− why ??
6 { f o r ( y = 0 ; y <= 2 5 ; y++) //<−− why ??
7 { f o r ( z = 0 ; z <= 3 0 ; z++)
8 {
9 c1 = 3∗ x+2∗y+z ;
10 c2 = x+y+z ;
11 i f ( c1 == 50 && c2 == 3 0 )
12 {
13 p r i n t f ( ” x = %d , y = %d , z = %d\n” , x , y , z ) ;
14 }
15 } // f o r ( z )
16 } // f o r ( y )
17 } // f o r ( x )
18 }

C Programming 41 / 50
Outline

1 Loops
while loop
do-while loop
for loop
Examples of Loops

2 Miscellaneous

3 How to Debug

C Programming 42 / 50
 Try to avoid following case

• Be careful, this

1 w h i l e (1 > 0)
2 p r i n t f ( ” Did you m i s s me?\ n” ) ;

• Runs till the end of all days

• ∞ loops are common mistakes, and you will experience many of them
• Check for conditions that are always true
• By the way,

Do not be evil!
C Programming 43 / 50
Valid variants of for-loop (1)

• The arguments for the for loop are optional

• If you already have defined your iterating variable

int i = 1;
f o r ( ; i <= 1 0 ; ++i )
p r i n t f ( ”%d\n” , i ) ;

• Or if you have the iteration statement in your loop body

f o r ( i = 1 ; i <= 1 0 ; )
p r i n t f ( ”%d\n” , ++i ) ; /∗ seems more l i k e a w h i l e l o o p
∗/

C Programming 44 / 50
Valid variants of for-loop (2)

• If you’re not passing anything, it runs forever

for (;;)
p r i n t f ( ” I ’m s t i l l h e r e \n” ) ;

Note: the semicolons are still there.

C Programming 45 / 50
Outline

1 Loops
while loop
do-while loop
for loop
Examples of Loops

2 Miscellaneous

3 How to Debug

C Programming 46 / 50
Story behind Bug

C Programming 47 / 50
 Overview about Programming Bugs (1)

• It happens!
• Two types of bugs
1 Grammar mistakes
2 Logic bugs
1 i n t main ( ) 1 i n t main ( )
2 { 2 {
3 int i = 0 , s = 0; 3 int i = 0, s ;
4 f o r ( i = 0 ; i < 5 ; i ++) 4 f o r ( i = 0 ; i < 5 ; i ++) ;
5 { 5 {
6 s += i ; 6 s += i ;
7 } 7 }
8 return 0; 8 return 0;
9 } 9 }

C Programming 48 / 50
 Overview about Programming Bugs (2)
• From my humble point of view
• Two types of bugs
1 Non-memory leakage bugs
2 Memory leakage bugs
• Grammar mistakes are not bug!!
1 i n t main ( )
1 i n t main ( )
2 {
2 {
3 int i = 0;
3 int i = 0 , s = 0;
4 i n t ∗p = NULL ;
4 f o r ( i = 0 ; i < 5 ; i −−) ;
5 f o r ( i = 0 ; i < 5 ; i ++)
5 {
6 {
6 s += i ;
7 p = NULL ;
7 i f ( i % 2 == 1 ) ;
8 p = ( i n t ∗) malloc (
8 continue ;
sizeof ( int )) ;
9 }
9 }
10 return 0;
10 return 0;
11 }
11 }

C Programming 49 / 50
 Debug by “printf()”
• From my humble point of view
• Two types of bugs
1 Non-memory leakage bugs
2 Memory leakage bugs
• Grammar mistakes are not bug!!
1 i n t main ( )
2 {
3 int i = 0 , s = 0;
4 p r i n t f ( ” bug 1 . 0 \ n” ) ;
5 f o r ( i = 0 ; i < 5 ; i −−) ;
6 {
7 s += i ;
8 p r i n t f ( ” bug 1 . 1 %d %d\n” , i , s ) ;
9 i f ( i % 2 == 1 ) ;
10 continue ;
11 }
12 p r i n t f ( ” bug 2 . 0 \ n” ) ;
13 return 0;
14 }

C Programming 50 / 50