first-steps6 min

Loops: Doing Things More Than Once

Sometimes you need to do something many times — go through a list, count up to a number, keep asking until the user gives a valid answer. That's what loops are for.

The most common loop is iterate. Let's start with a range:

start:
    iterate i in 1 to 5
        print("Step {i}")

Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5

Clean counts from the first number to the last, running your code each time with i set to the current value.

When you have a list, iterate goes through every item for you:

start:
    list<string> fruits = ["apple", "banana", "mango"]

    iterate fruit in fruits
        print("I like {fruit}")

I like apple
I like banana
I like mango

Use while when you need to keep going until a condition changes:

start:
    integer count = 1

    while count <= 3
        print("Count is {count}")
        count = count + 1

Count is 1
Count is 2
Count is 3

Use break to exit a loop early. Use continue to skip the rest of the current step and move to the next.

Quick recap

iterate i in 1 to 10 — counts from 1 to 10
iterate item in myList — goes through every item in a list
while condition — keeps going as long as the condition is true
break — exits the loop immediately
continue — skips to the next iteration
Don't forget to update your counter in a while loop — or it runs forever!