loops within loops. HELP!!

Paul_help_

Hi friends.

I need help with something very basic.

I am currently reading a book on php and I just need to ask about how loops within loops work.

I am aware of the fact that 'inner for statements' run 1st and then the outer for runs afterwards.

But what I am not sure of is:

1) do inner 'if' run before outer 'ifs'?
2) do inner 'whiles' run before outer 'whiles'?
3) do inner 'do... whiles' run before outer 'do... whiles'?

etc ,,, etc.

or is this just an inner 'for' statement thing??

Paul.

laserlight

Actually, the outer loop will run first. On the first iteration of the outer loop, the inner loop will run, and keep running, until it terminates. Then, the next iteration of the outer loop will run, and on this iteration, the inner loop will run, and keep running, until it terminates. Then, the next iteration of the outer loop will run, ..., until the outer loop itself terminates. This applies whether the loops are for loops, while loops, or do while loops.

Paul help! wrote:
1) do inner 'if' run before outer 'ifs'?

Likewise, the outer if statement will run before the inner if statement. It is simply a consequence of the flow of control proceeding statement by statement from the "top" to the "bottom" except where this flow is modified by control statements such as if statements and loops.

Paul_help_

thanks laserlight.

sneakyimp

You may find it helpful to actually write a nested loop and run it:

for($i=0; $<10; $i++) {
  echo "OUTER loop, iteration #$i" . PHP_EOL;
  for($j=0; $j<5; $j++) {
    echo "\tINNER loop, iteration $j" . PHP_EOL;
  }
}

faizan300

What is the use of it?

laserlight

What is the use of loops within loops? Well, they are useful for expressing logic that involves some kind of iterations within iterations, but that's just another way for saying "loops within loops". Think of say, accessing arrays of arrays.

Weedpacket

Like when you read a book. You read it page by page; on each page you read line by line; in each line you read word by word ....

sneakyimp

The most common example I've ever seen of a loop within a loop is when you want to parse data in a table or spreadsheet. The outer loop loops through all the rows and the inner one loops through all the cells in a particular row.

dalecosp

sneakyimp;11043133 wrote:
The most common example I've ever seen of a loop within a loop is when you want to parse data in a table or spreadsheet. The outer loop loops through all the rows and the inner one loops through all the cells in a particular row.

Great example.

"Sometimes, though, when you're a man, you get alone in your room with a computer and loop inside a loop. It's for fun...."