A loop is a way of repeating a block of code until a certain condition is met.
Loops build on top of the logic found in conditional if statements. When an if statement’s condition is true, its code block is executed once. In a for loop, the code block is repeated until the condition is no longer true.
Haven’t found everything you need in a grocery store yet? Then while that condition is true, the following steps need to be completed over and over again:
- Read an item off of the shopping list.
- Find that item in the store.
- Put that item in the cart.
A robot could follow this loop to shop in a store for us! And just as repetitive tasks like these are common in real life, they are also common in programming.
Keep going to see how programmers repeat tasks using loops!
Instructions
With loops, any repetitive task can be solved with a small amount of code. The attached GIF repeats a loop of turning a rectangle over and over again.
While this loop is endless, in the next exercise we will learn to create loops that execute a set number of times!