Loops: For loop, while loop


Code can be repeated using a loop. Lines of code can be repeated N times, where N is manually configurable. In practice, it means code will be repeated until a condition is met. This condition is usually (x >=N) but it’s not the only possible condition.

Python has 3 types of loops: for loops, while loops and nested loops.
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For loop

We can iterate a list using a for loop

#!/usr/bin/python
 
items = [ "Abby","Brenda","Cindy","Diddy" ]
 
for item in items:
print(item)

Visualization of for loop:
for loop

The for loop can be used to repeat N times too:

#!/usr/bin/python
 
for i in range(1,10):
print(i)

While loop

If you are unsure how many times a code should be repeated, use a while loop.
For example,

correctNumber = 5
guess = 0
 
while guess != correctNumber:
guess = int(input("Guess the number: "))
 
if guess != correctNumber:
print('False guess')
 
print('You guessed the correct number')

Nested loops

We can combine for loops using nesting. If we want to iterate over an (x,y) field we could use:

#!/usr/bin/python
 
for x in range(1,10):
for y in range(1,10):
print("(" + str(x) + "," + str(y) + ")")

Nesting is very useful, but it increases complexity the deeper you nest.

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21 thoughts on “Loops: For loop, while loop”

  1. Sagi Sulimani - April 22, 2017

    Hi Frank.
    There is a little mistake in the “While loop” example. It should be:

        guess = int(input("Guess the number: "))

    Otherwise, the compiler will compare between string and integer, and ‘5’!=5.
    Except it – excellent!

    1. Frank - April 22, 2017

      Thanks Sagi!
      I’ve updated the article.

  2. Prashant Raina - January 28, 2016

    whats wrong with this code not generating primes as i expected

    i=3
num=int(input("enter the no. upto which u want the primes: "))
arr=[2]
print(2)
while i<num:
    j=0
    while j<len(arr):
        if i%arr[j]==0:
            i=i+1
            j=len(arr)
        else:
            j=j+1
            print i
            arr[len(arr)]=i
    1. Frank - January 30, 2016

      The conditions in the while loops are never true. I fixed your code:

      num=int(input("enter the no. upto which u want the primes: "))
 
arr=[2]
print(arr)
 
i = 2
while max(arr) < num:
 
   prime = True
   for p in arr:
       if i % p == 0:
           prime = False
           break
 
   if prime:
       arr.append(i)
 
   i = i + 1  
 
   print(arr)
 
print(arr)

      You can see the prime numbers being added to the array in the loop.

  3. Deepak V a - December 3, 2015

    why are you using str() in print statement i am getting even i used variable directly

    1. Frank - December 3, 2015

      sometimes that may lead to problems as they have different datatypes,just being cautious.

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