Abstract
An array enables you to work with several data items of the same type using a single name, the array name. The need for this occurs often—when working with a series of temperatures or the ages of a group of people, for example. A loop is another fundamental programming facility. It provides a mechanism for repeating one or more statements as many times as your application requires. Loops are essential in the majority of programs. Using a computer to calculate the company payroll, for example, would not be practicable without a loop. There are several kinds of loop, each with their own particular area of application.
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Notes
- 1.
Without going too much into the specifics, statements such as count += height[i] < average; are sometimes produced by “clever” C++ programmers because they assume they will run faster than the original conditional statement if (height[i] < average) ++count; (because the latter contains a so-called branching statement). The fact is that any self-respecting compiler will already rewrite this code for you in a similar manner. Our advice is that it’s almost always best to leave the cleverness to the compiler; your job should be, in the first place, to produce code that is correct and clearly readable.
- 2.
Technically, std::size() is primarily defined in the iterator header. But because it is such a commonly used utility, the Standard Library guarantees it to be available also when the array header is included (and with several other headers as well). Since you’ll mostly use std::size() with arrays, we believe it is easier to remember to include the array header instead of the iterator header.
- 3.
If the for loop’s body contains continue statements (covered later in this chapter), you’ll need some additional work rewriting the loop to a while loop. Concretely, you’ll have to ensure a copy of the iteration code is added prior to every continue statement.
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© 2018 Ivor Horton and Peter Van Weert
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Horton, I., Van Weert, P. (2018). Arrays and Loops. In: Beginning C++17. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3366-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3366-5_5
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