The
for loop has a slightly different anatomy than the while loop, but both are very similar.
Let's examine the anatomy of a for loop as compared to an equivalent while loop. Take an example of the following code snippets:
|
The for loop |
An equivalent while loop |
|---|---|
|
for( int x = 1; x <= 5; x++ )
{
cout << x << endl;
}
|
int x = 1;
while( x <= 5 )
{
cout << x << endl;
x++;
}
|
The for loop has three statements inside its brackets. Let's examine them in order.
The first statement of the for loop (int x = 1;) only gets executed once, when we first enter the body of the for loop. It is typically used to initialize the value of the loop's counter variable (in this case, the variable x). The second statement inside the for loop (x <= 5;) is the loop's repeat condition. As long as x <= 5, we must continue to stay inside the body of the for loop. The last statement inside the brackets of the for loop (x++;) gets executed after we complete the body...