Visual Studio 2013 Lesson 15: Looping

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We will often need to write code that does a job repeatedly until a certain condition is met, this process is  called  looping . Visual Basic 2013 allows a procedure to run repetitively as many times as long as the processor and memory could support.  For example, we can design a program that adds a series of numbers until the sum exceeds a certain value, or a program that asks the user to enter data repeatedly until he or she enters the word ‘Finish’. In Visual Basic 2013, there are three types of Loops,  the For…..Next loop, the Do loop and the While…..End While loop

15.1 For….Next Loop

The most common loop in Visual Studio 2013 is the For….Next loop. The structure of a For…Next loop is as shown below:

For counter=startNumber to endNumber (Step increment)

One or more Visual Studio 2013 statements

Next

To exit a For…..Next Loop, you can place the Exit For statement within the loop; and it is normally used together with the If….Then statement. For its application, you can refer to example 15.1 d.


Example 15.1 a

Dim counter as Integer

For counter=1 to 10
ListBox1.Items.Add (counter)
Next
* The program will enter number 1 to 10 into the list box.

Example 15.1b

Dim counter , sum As Integer

For counter=1 to 100 step 10
sum+=counter
ListBox1.Items.Add (sum)
Next

* The program will calculate the sum of the numbers as follows:

sum=0+10+20+30+40+……

Example 15.1c

Dim counter, sum As Integer

sum = 1000
For counter = 100 To 5 Step -5
sum – = counter
ListBox1.Items.Add(sum)
Next
*Notice that increment can be negative.

The program will compute the
subtraction as follow:
1000-100-95-90-……….

Example 15.1d

Dim n as Integer

For n=1 to 10
If n>6 then
Exit For
End If
Else
ListBox1.Items.Add ( n)
Next
End If
Next

The process will stop when n is greater than 6.

15.2 Do Loop

The Do Loop structures are

a) Do While condition
Block of one or more Visual Studio 2013 statements
Loop

b) Do
Block of one or more Visual Studio 2013 statements
Loop While condition

c) Do Until condition
Block of one or more Visual Basic 2012 statements
Loop

d) Do
Block of one or more Visual Basic 2012 statements
Loop Until condition

* Exiting the Loop

Sometime we need exit to exit a loop prematurely because a certain
condition is fulfilled. The syntax to use is Exit Do. Lets examine the following examples:

Example 15.2(a)

Do while counter <=1000

TextBox1.Text=counter
counter +=1

Loop

* The above example will keep on adding until counter >1000.

The above example can be rewritten as

Do
TextBox1.Text=counter
counter+=1
Loop until counter>1000

 

Example 15.2(b)

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim sum, n As Integer

ListBox1.Items.Add(“n” & vbTab & “Sum”)
ListBox1.Items.Add(“———————-”)
Do
n += 1
sum += n
ListBox1.Items.Add(n & vbTab & sum)
If n = 100 Then
Exit Do
End If
Loop

End Sub

* The loop in the above example can be replaced by the following loop:

Do Until n = 10
n += 1
sum += n
ListBox1.Items.Add(n & vbTab & sum)

Loop

The output is as shown in Figure 15.1

vb2013_figure15.1

                                              Figure 15.1

15.3 While….End While Loop

The structure of a While….End While Loop is very similar to the Do Loop. it takes the following form:

While conditions

Visual Studio 2013 statements

End While

Example 15.3

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim sum, n As Integer
ListBox1.Items.Add(“n” & vbTab & “sum”)
ListBox1.Items.Add(“———————-“)

While n <> 10

n += 1
sum += n
ListBox1.Items.Add(n & vbTab & sum)

End While

End Sub

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