Summary

Chapter 7 introduced the first of several loops : the for loop. The for loop works well in situations where the loop will iterate a fixed number of times.

Often, however, the number of times a loop will iterate is unpredictable since the number of iterations depends on user input during runtime. One example discussed in this chapter is a data entry application in which the loop, upon entry of invalid data, asks the user whether they want to retry or quit, and if they want to retry , gives the user another opportunity to enter data. The number of times this loop may iterate is unpredictable, since it will keep repeating until the user either enters valid data or quits.

This chapter showed you how to use the while loop, which works better than a for loop when the number of times a loop will execute is unpredictable. While the parentheses following the for keyword consists of three expressions, initialization, condition, and update, the parentheses following the while keyword consists only of the condition; you have to take care of initialization and update elsewhere in the code.

There also are situations in which, while the number of times this loop may execute is unpredictable, the loop will execute at least once. An example discussed in this chapter is a loop that displays a menu with various choices, including exiting the program. In this menu example, the menu always displays at least once; the user cannot choose to exit before being given that choice. In such situations, a do while loop is a better choice than a while loop. This chapter showed you how to use a do while loop, and introduced the issue of variable scope.

So far, all of our programs have had only one function, main. While all programs must have a main function, a C++ program may have additional functions. As programs get more sophisticated, it is helpful not to put all the code in main, but instead to allocate the code among different functions. The next chapter will show you how to add and use additional functions.