C Loops Explained with Examples (For Loop, Do While and While)

Loops are very basic and very useful programming facility that facilitates programmer to execute any block of code lines repeatedly and can be controlled as per conditions added by programmer. It saves writing code several times for same task.

There are three types of loops in C.

1. For loop
2. Do while loop
3. While loop

1. For Loop Examples

Basic syntax to use ‘for’ loop is:

for (variable initialization; condition to control loop; iteration of variable) {
    statement 1;
    statement 2;
    ..
    ..
}

In the pseudo code above :

• Variable initialization is the initialization of counter of loop.
• Condition is any logical condition that controls the number of times the loop statements are executed.
• Iteration is the increment/decrement of counter.

It is noted that when ‘for’ loop execution starts, first variable initialization is done, then condition is checked before execution of statements; if and only if condition is TRUE, statements are executed; after all statements are executed, iteration of counter of loop is done either increment or decrement.

Here is a basic C program covering usage of ‘for’ loop in several cases:

#include <stdio.h>

int main () {

    int i = 0, k = 0;
    float j = 0;
    int loop_count = 5;

    printf("Case1:\n");
    for (i=0; i < loop_count; i++) {
        printf("%d\n",i);
    }

    printf("Case2:\n");
    for (j=5.5; j > 0; j--) {
        printf("%f\n",j);
    }

    printf("Case3:\n");
    for (i=2; (i < 5 && i >=2); i++) {
        printf("%d\n",i);
    }

    printf("Case4:\n");
    for (i=0; (i != 5); i++) {
        printf("%d\n",i);
    }

    printf("Case5:\n");
    /* Blank loop  */
    for (i=0; i < loop_count; i++) ;

    printf("Case6:\n");
    for (i=0, k=0; (i < 5 && k < 3); i++, k++) {
        printf("%d\n",i);
    }

    printf("Case7:\n");
    i=5;
    for (; 0; i++) {
        printf("%d\n",i);
    }

    return 0;
}

In the code above :

• Case1 (Normal) : Variable ‘i’ is initialized to 0; condition is to execute loop till ‘i’ is lesser than value of ‘loop_count’ variable; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’
• Case2 (Using float variable) : Variable ‘j’ is float and initialized to 5.5; condition is to execute loop till ‘j’ is greater than ‘0’; iteration is decrement of counter variable ‘j’.
• Case3 (Taking logical AND condition) : Variable ‘i’ is initialized to 2; condition is to execute loop when ‘i’ is greater or equal to ‘2’and lesser than ‘5’; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’.
• Case4 (Using logical NOT EQUAL condition) : Variable ‘i’ is initialized to 0; condition is to execute loop till ‘i’ is NOT equal to ‘5’; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’.
• Case5 (Blank Loop) : This example shows that loop can execute even if there is no statement in the block for execution on each iteration.
• Case6 (Multiple variables and conditions) : Variables ‘i’ and ‘k’ are initialized to 0; condition is to execute loop when ‘i’ is lesser than ‘5’and ‘k’ is lesser than ‘3’; iteration is increment of counter variables ‘i’ and ‘k’.
• Case7 (No initialization in for loop and Always FALSE condition) : Variables ‘i’ is initialized before for loop to ‘5’; condition is FALSE always as ‘0’ is provided that causes NOT to execute loop statement; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’.

Here is the output of the above program :

# ./a.out
Case1:
0
1
2
3
4
Case2:
5.500000
4.500000
3.500000
2.500000
1.500000
0.500000
Case3:
2
3
4
Case4:
0
1
2
3
4
Case5:
Case6:
0
1
2
Case7:

Loop can run infinitely if condition is set to TRUE always or no condition is specified. For example:

for (;;)

If loop contain only one statement then braces are optional; generally it is preferred to use braces from readability point of view. For example :

for (j=0;j<5;j++)
    printf("j”);

Loops can be nested too. There can be loop inside another loop. Given below is example for nested loop to display right angle triangle of ‘@’ symbol.

for (i=0; i < 5; i++)
{
    for (j=0;j<=i;j++)
    {
        printf("@”);
    }
}

Just like For Loops, it is also important for you to understand C Pointers fundamentals.

2. Do While Loop Examples

It is another loop like ‘for’ loop in C. But do-while loop allows execution of statements inside block of loop for one time for sure even if condition in loop fails.

Basic syntax to use ‘do-while’ loop is:

variable initialization;
do {
statement 1;
statement 2;
..
..
iteration of variable;
} while (condition to control loop)

I the pseudo code above :

• Variable initialization is the initialization of counter of loop before start of ‘do-while’ loop.
• Condition is any logical condition that controls the number of times execution of loop statements
• Iteration is the increment/decrement of counter

Here is a basic C program covering usage of ‘do-while’ loop in several cases:

#include <stdio.h>
int main () {
int i = 0;
int loop_count = 5;

printf("Case1:\n");
do {
printf("%d\n",i);
i++;
} while (i<loop_count);

printf("Case2:\n");
i=20;
do {
printf("%d\n",i);
i++;
} while (0);

printf("Case3:\n");
i=0;
do {
printf("%d\n",i);
} while (i++<5);

printf("Case4:\n");
i=3;
do {
printf("%d\n",i);
i++;
} while (i < 5 && i >=2);
return 0;
}

In the code above :

• Case1 (Normal) :Variable ‘i’ is initialized to 0 before ‘do-while’ loop; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’; condition is to execute loop till ‘i’ is lesser than value of ‘loop_count’ variable i.e. 5.
• Case2 (Always FALSE condition) : Variables ‘i’ is initialized before ‘do-while’ loop to ‘20’; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’; condition is FALSE always as ‘0’ is provided that causes NOT to execute loop statements, but it is noted here in output that loop statement is executed once because do-while loop always executes its loop statements at least once even if condition fails at first iteration.
• Case3 (Iteration in condition check expression) : Variable ‘i’ is initialized to 0 before ‘do-while’ loop; here note that iteration and condition is provided in same expression. Here, observe the condition is to execute loop till ‘i’ is lesser than ‘5’, but in output 5 is also printed that is because, here iteration is being done at condition check expression, hence on each iteration ‘do-while’ loop executes statements ahead of condition check.
• Case4 (Using logical AND condition) : Variable ‘i’ is initialized before ‘do-while’ loop to ‘3’; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’; condition is execute loop when ‘i’ is lesser than ‘5’ AND ‘i’ is greater or equal to ‘2’.

Here is output for above program.

# ./a.out
 Case1:
 0
 1
 2
 3
 4
 Case2:
 20
 Case3:
 0
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 Case4:
 3
 4
#

Also, if you are interested, read about our earlier article on bitwise operators in C.

3. While Loop Examples

It is another loop like ‘do-while’ loop in C. The ‘while’ loop allows execution of statements inside block of loop only if condition in loop succeeds.

Basic syntax to use ‘while’ loop is:

variable initialization;
 while (condition to control loop) {
 statement 1;
 statement 2;
 ..
 ..
 iteration of variable;
 }

In the pseudo code above :

• Variable initialization is the initialization of counter of loop before start of ‘while’ loop
• Condition is any logical condition that controls the number of times execution of loop statements
• Iteration is the increment/decrement of counter

Basic C program covering usage of ‘while’ loop in several cases:

#include <stdio.h>

int main () {

    int i = 0;
    int loop_count = 5;

    printf("Case1:\n");
    while (i<loop_count) {
        printf("%d\n",i);
        i++;
    }

    printf("Case2:\n");
    i=20;
    while (0) {
        printf("%d\n",i);
        i++;
    }

    printf("Case3:\n");
    i=0;
    while (i++<5) {
        printf("%d\n",i);
    }
    printf("Case4:\n");
    i=3;
    while (i < 5 && i >=2) {
        printf("%d\n",i);
        i++;
    }

    return 0;
}

In the code above:

• Case1 (Normal) : Variable ‘i’ is initialized to 0 before ‘while’ loop; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’; condition is execute loop till ‘i’ is lesser than value of ‘loop_count’ variable i.e. 5.
• Case2 (Always FALSE condition) : Variables ‘i’ is initialized before ‘while’ loop to ‘20’; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’; condition is FALSE always as ‘0’ is provided that causes NOT to execute loop statements and loop statement is NOT executed. Here, it is noted that as compared to ‘do-while’ loop, statements in ‘while’ loop are NOT even executed once which executed at least once in ‘do-while’ loop because ‘while’ loop only executes loop statements only if condition succeeds.
• Case3 (Iteration in condition check expression) :Variable ‘i’ is initialized to 0 before ‘while’ loop; here note that iteration and condition is provided in same expression. Here, observe the condition is execute loop till ‘i’ is lesser than ‘5’ and loop iterates 5 times. Unlike ‘do-while’ loop, here condition is checked first then ‘while’ loop executes statements.
• Case4 (Using logical AND condition) :Variable ‘i’ is initialized before ‘while’ loop to ‘3’; iteration is increment of counter variable ‘i’; condition is execute loop when ‘i’ is lesser than ‘5’ AND ‘i’ is greater or equal to ‘2’.

Below is output for above program.

# ./a.out
Case1:
0
1
2
3
4
Case2:
Case3:
1
2
3
4
5
Case4:
3
4
#