CSci 150: Foundations of computer science
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while loops

Python programs, as we've seen, consist of a series of statements, each on its own line. We've seen the following statement types:

statement typecode example
assignment statement sentence = 'hello world'
function call print(sentence)
if statement if sentence == 'friend:'
for statement for letter in sentence:

The while statement is another useful statement, which combines the looping capability of a for with the conditional capability of an if. In a program, it looks very much like an if statement:

num = 1
while num < 10:
    num = num * 2
print(num)

The difference is that with an if, the computer executes the body once and then continues; but with a while, it repeats the body until the condition no longer holds.

In this example, the computer:

  1. Initializes num to 1 at the beginning.

  2. Checks that num is below 10; since it is, it executes the body, changing num to 2.

  3. Checks again whether num is below 10; since it still is, it executes the body again, changing num to 4.

  4. Sees that num is still below 10, and so it changes num to 8.

  5. Sees that num is still below 10, and so it changes num to 16.

  6. Sees that num is not less than 10 anymore, so it finally executes statements following the body. In this case, it's just the print call, which displays 16 on the screen.

Another example: A program that reads integers from the user until reading 0, at which point it displays the sum of the integers before the 0.

total = 0
num = int(input())
while num != 0:
    total = total + num
    num = int(input())
print(total)

This program reads a number num from the user, adding it into total and then reading another number num from the user until the user finally types 0. If the user enters 5, 6, 2, then 0, then total would see 5, then 6, then 2 added into it, so total ends up at 13, which the computer then displays.

With the while loop, it's worth keeping in mind that the condition is checked only after each iteration completes. For example, suppose we add “print(num)” to the end of the body.

while num != 0:
    total = total + num
    num = int(input())
    print(num)

This displays each number as it is read (except the first, which is read outside the loop). When the user finally enters 0, the computer still executes “print(num)”, displaying 0, before realizing that num is now 0 and so it should not execute the loop's body again.