Introduction to Loops

Introduction

This unit focuses on iteration, which is done by using loops. In programming, iteration means continually repeating a set of instructions. Try mapping the concept of iteration on a real-life example. Suppose a person has gone for a walk. While walking, a person puts one foot ahead and then the other food, i.e., one step at a time. The same pattern is followed again and again.

There are different types of iterations:

• Iterate until a specific condition is met.
• Iterate a certain number of times.

In the programming world, we implement the iterative approach with loops. The steps you need to iterate become part of a loop.

Suppose we need to take 100 steps. How will we program this? Are we going to ask a computer $100$ times to take a step? No, certainly not! That would take us a lot of time. This is where loops come in handy. We’ll ask a computer once to put the right foot in front and then the left foot, or vice versa. We’ll then wrap these $2$ instructions in a magic box called loop. The computer will know that it has to execute these two instructions $100$ times.

Java provides the loop functionality. In the following lessons, we’ll cover how loops work in Java.

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