CONTROL STRUCTURE

Introduction
 A control structure is simply a pattern for controlling the flow of a
program module.

 These statements are commonly referred to as control statements

because they “control” the flow of program execution.

 The three fundamental control structures of a structured

programming language are:
1. Sequence
2. Selection
3. Iteration
 Introduction cont’d…

One of the most important aspects of programming is

controlling which statement will execute next. Control
structures/Control statements enable a programmer to
determine the order in which program statements are
executed.

These control structures allow you to do two things:

1. Skip some statements while executing others, and
2. Repeat one or more statements while some condition is true.
 Sequential Program Control

 By sequential we mean "in sequence," one-after-the-other.

 Sequential logic is the easiest to construct and follow.

 Essentially you place each statement in the order that you want them
to be executed and the program executes them in sequence from the
Start statement to the End statement.

 For instance, If your program included 20 basic commands, then it

would execute those 20 statements in order and then quit.
 Control Statements

Control statements change the flow of a program based on

specified conditions. There are two types of control
statements that is:
1) Branching control
- if
- switch
2) Looping/Iteration control
- for
- while
 Selection/Branching Control

 It is common that you will need to make a decision about some

condition of your program's data to determine whether certain
statements should be executed.

 A selection-control statement allows you to make "decisions" in your

code about the current state of your program's data and then to take
one of two alternative paths to a "next" statement.

 All decisions are stated as "yes/no" questions.

 When a program is executed, if the answer to a decision is "yes" (or

true), then the left branch of control is taken. If the answer is "no" (or
 Branching Statements

if statement

The if statement is a powerful decision-making statement

and is used to control the flow of execution of statements.

It is a two-way decision statement and is used in conjunction

with an expression, and takes the following form; if (test
expression) statement;
 if statement

The if statement may be implemented in different forms

depending on the complexity of conditions to be tested as
follows:

1. Simple if statement

2. If …. else statement

3. Nested if ….. else statement

 Simple if statement

 The general form of a simple if statement is:

if (test expression) statement;

 The statement block may be a single statement or a group of

statements.

 If the test expression is true the statement block is executed;

otherwise it will be skipped and the program control jumps to
statement .

 E.g.
 Example

 Write a program to input voter’s name and age then display

“you are allowed to vote” if age is equal or greater than 18.

 Write a program to input student name, maths, english and

kiswahili then calculate total and average marks and display
the result. If average marks is greater or equal to 50 it should
display “pass” else it should display “fail”.
 Algorithm

 Input voter name

 Input voter age

 If (age>=18) display “You are allowed to vote”

 START

Input voters’
name and age

If YES
age> Vote
=18

NO

Not
allowed
to vote

STOP
 Program code
# include <stdio.h>
int main()
{ char vname[10];
int age;
printf (“Enter voters’ name”);
scanf (“%s”,& vname);
printf (“Enter age”);
scanf (“%d”,& age);
if (age>=18) printf (“Vote”);
else printf (“Not allowed to vote”);
}
 The if …… else Statement

 It is used to decide between two courses of action.

 The if … else statement is an extension of the simple if statement. Its general

form is;

if (test expression) true-statement(s);

else false-statement(s);

 Example

 If(avg>50) printf(“pass”);else printf(“fail”);

 If the expression is TRUE, statement1 is executed; statement2 is skipped.

 If the expression is FALSE, statement2 is executed; statement1 is skipped.

 Example

 Write a program to enter product name, quantity and price

then calculate total price. If total price is greater than 10000
a discount of 10% is offered. Otherwise no discount is
offered. Let the program display the discount and net price.
 If (tprice>10000) disc=0.1*tprice;
 Else disc=0;
 Netprice=tprice-disc;
 Design a flow chart and hence implement a program to input
employee name, hours worked and rate per hour then calculate
gross pay. Let the program calculate tax of 15% when gross
pay is greater than or equal to 50000 and 10% when gross pay
is less than 50000.
 Operators

Arithmetic operators

 + , - , *, /

 ++ increment operator – increase a value by

one.

 -- decrement operator – Decrease a value by

one.
 Conditional/Relational operators

They are used to compare values

< - less than
== - Equality
<= Less or equal to
> Greater than
>= Greater than or equal to

 Logical operators

 AND operator (&&) – Applies when both operands/conditions

are true.

 OR operator (||) – Applies when both or either condition is

true.

 NOT operator (!) – Negates OR or AND operators. E.g. !&&

 If (rain==“yes” && temp<20) prinf (“Wear a Jacket”);

 The if…elseif statement
 When a series of decisions are involved, we may have to use more than one
if .. else statements. The general form for nested if…. elseif statement is;
if(expression 1)
{
statement 1; /* Executes when the expression 1 is true */
}
else if( expression 2)
{
statement 2; /* Executes when the expression 2 is true */
}
else if( expression 3)
{
statement 3; /* Executes when the expression 3 is true */
}
else
{
statement 4; /* executes when the none of the above condition is true */
}
 Example

 Write a program to input employee name, hours worked and

rate per hour then calculate gross pay = hours worked * rate
per hour. Tax is charged based on gross pay as follows:

Gross pay tax

Over 100000 20%
Between 50000 and 10%
100000
Below 50000 0
 Program code
 Design a flowchart and hence write a program prompts the
user to enter the student’s marks and then it displays the
grade corresponding to the marks as shown in the table
Marks Grade
80 - 100 A
60 - 79 B
50 - 59 C
40 - 49 D
0 - 39 Fail
 Nesting if …. else Statements

 The general form for nested if…. else statement is;

if (test-conditions-1)
{
if (test-conditions-2);
statement-1;
else statement - 2; } statement-x ;
}
 If the condition-1 is true, condition-2 is tested and if
condition-2 is true then and statement-1 will be evaluated
otherwise statement-2 will be executed if condition-2 is
false.

 If condition-1 is false control is transferred to the statement-

x.
 Example

 If (gender==“female)
{if (mean>=60) printf (“Admit student”);
else printf (“don’t admit”);}
Else printf (“Not admissible”);
 Example

A bank‟s policy is to a 2% bonus on the ending

balance at the end of the year (31st December)
irrespective of the balance, and a 5% bonus is also
given to female account holders if the balance is more
than 50,000.
 main()

 if (sex is female)

 { if (balance > 50000)

 { bonus = 0.05 * balance; else bonus = 0.02 *

balance; } else { bonus = 0.02 * balance; } balance
= balance + bonus;
 The Switch statement

The switch statement selects from a number of alternatives. The switch

statement has the following components.
 The switch statement- It includes the variable to be tested in brackets.

 Braces { }- Used to indicate the start and end of the switch statement block.

 Case statement- Each case statement specifies a value to compare with the
value specifies in the switch statement.
 Default – It is an optional statement included to indicate the message or
statement to be executed if none of the case statements were matched.
 Syntax
switch (value)
{
case 1: first alternative statement;
break;
case 2: second alternative statement;
break;
case 3: last alternative statement;
break;
default: default statement;
}
NB: Switch statement can only be used for ordinal
data types such as character and integer data types.
Float data types are not allowed as switch values.
 Example

1. Write a Program to input a number then display the

number in words. (1 to 5).

2. Write a program to input grade. If grade is A, it

should display Excellent, grade B - Good, Grade C –
Average and D- Below average.
# include <stdio.h> break;
int main() case 5: printf(“Five”);
{ break;
int num; default: printf(“Error”);
Printf(“Enter number”); }
Scanf(“%d”,&num); return 0;
Switch (num) }
{
case 1: printf(“One”);
break;
case 2: printf(“Two”);
break;
case 3: printf(“Three”);
break;
case 4: printf(“Four”);
# include <stdio.h> If (num==4)}
int main() {printf(“Four”);}
{ If (num==5)
int num; {printf(“Five”);}
Printf(“Enter number”); return 0;
Scanf(“%d”,&num); }
If (num==1)
{ printf(“One”);}
If (num==2)
{printf(“Two”);}
If (num==3)
{printf(“Three”);}
 Write a program to input two numbers and a sign.
Then perform calculations according to the sign
entered as shown below.
Sign Calculation
+ Add the two number
- Subtract the two numbers
* Multiply the two numbers
/ Divide the two numbers
# include <stdio.h>
int main() case ‘-’: ans=x-y;
{ int x,y; break;
float ans; case ‘*’: ans=x*y;
char sign; break;
Printf(“Enter number”); case ‘/’: ans=x/y;
Scanf(“%d”,&x); break;
Printf(“Enter 2nd number”); default: printf(“Error”);
Scanf(“%d”,&y); Printf ( “answer %f”,ans);
Printf(“Enter sign”); }
Scanf(“%c”,&sign); return 0;
Switch (sign) }
{ case ‘+’: ans=x+y;
break;
 Iteration/Loop control structure

 The purpose of loop statements is to repeat one or more

statements a given number of times until certain conditions
occur.

 A programming loop is one that forces the program to go back

up again and thus you can execute lines of code repeatedly.

 This type of control statement is what makes computers so

valuable. A computer can repeatedly execute the same
instructions over-and-over again without getting bored with
There are three kinds of loop statements in C. That is:
 while
 do…while
 for
 for Loop
 A for loop is a repetition control structure that allows you to
efficiently write a loop that needs to execute a specific number
of times.
 A for loop is useful when you know how many times a task is to
be repeated.
Syntax:
The syntax of a for loop is:
for(initialization; test-condition; increment)
{
Statements;
}
Note: the three sections in the for () statement must be separated by semicolons
 Example

Write a program to display numbers

10,11,12,13,14……..19.
int main()
{int x;
for(x = 10; x < 20; x++)
{
printf("value of x : %d " , x );
printf("\n");
}
return 0;
Use for control structure to:

 Write a program to display numbers 10,9,8,7…1.

 Write a program to enter employee name, hours worked

and rate per hour then calculate gross salary of 4
employees.
 while loop

 The while statement continually executes a block of statements while

a particular expression/condition is true.

 Its syntax can be expressed as:

while (expression)
{
statement(s)
}

NB: In while loop, the test is done at the start. i.e. test then execute.
 The while statement evaluates expression, which
must return a boolean value. If the expression
evaluates to true, the while statement executes the
statement(s) in the while block.

 The while statement continues testing the expression

and executing its block until the expression evaluates
to false.
while flow chart

While
expressi No
on

Yes

Statement(s)
 counter

 A counter is an integer variable that counts the

number of loops.

 It is initialized before the loop and incremented or

decremented within the loop.

 It is used when dealing with predefined number of

loops.
 Examples

 Write a program to display the word “hallo” 10 times.

 Write a program to display the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.

 Write a program to display the numbers 2,4,6,8………12.

 Write a program to input student name, maths, english

and kiswahili and calculate total and average marks of
five students.
# include <stdio.h>
int main()
{ int counter;
counter = 0;
while(counter<=10)
{ printf (“ \nHallo”);
counter++;
}
}
 start

Count=0

While No
(count<1
0)

Yes

Display Hallo

Count++

stop
# include <stdio.h>
Int main()
{ int counter;
counter = 1;
while(counter<=8)
{ printf (“%d”, counter);
counter++;
}
}
# include <stdio.h>
Int main()
{ int counter;
counter = 0;
while(counter<=12)
{ printf (“%d”, counter);
counter=counter +2;
}
}
# include <stdio.h>
Int main()
{ int counter;
counter = 10;
while(counter>=1)
{ printf (“%d”,counter);
printf (“\n”);
counter--;
}
}
#include <stdio.h> printf (“Enter English”);
int main() scanf(“%d”,&eng);
{int count; printf (“Enter Kiswahili”);
int mat,eng,kis,tot; float avg; scanf(“%d”,&kis);
char sname[10]; tot=mat+eng+kis;
count=0; avg=tot/3;
while (count<5) Printf (“Total is %d \n”,tot);
{ printf (“Enter student name”); Printf (“Average is %f \n”,avg);
scanf(“%s”,&sname); Count++;
printf (“Enter mathematics”); }
scanf(“%d”,&mat); }
 do while

 Unlike for and while loops, which test the loop condition at the top of the loop, the
do...while loop in C programming language checks its condition at the bottom of
the loop.

 A do...while loop is similar to a while loop, except that a do...while loop is

guaranteed to execute at least one time. Do…while is used when the body of the
loop needs to be executed first before evaluating the test-condition.
do

statement(s)

}
# include <stdio.h>
Int main()
{ int counter;
counter = 10;
do { printf (“%d”,counter);
printf (“\n”);
counter=counter-1;
} while(counter>=1);
}