MCD4720

Fundamentals of C++

Lecture 3
Syntax Building Blocks
2: Selection, Repetition
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MCD4720 Foundations of C++
Today’s Lecture Overview
• Selection
• Repetition

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This Week’s Learning Objectives
• Understand how to implement decisions and the role they play in
program design
• Understand how to implement loops and when to use each type of
loop

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Decisions
• Selection is the next main control structure for us to look at
• Rather than each line of code executing one after the other, with
selection (also known as decisions) a choice has to be made about
whether a line of code runs, or indeed which line of code to run
• You will (hopefully!) be familiar with this from Scribble or any other
programming that you have done

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Decisions - Algorithm
• The basic notion of a decision is the same in all programming
languages… it is sometimes just the exact syntax that varies

if (expression) if (expression)
statement1;
statement;
else
statement2;

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Decisions - Scribble

Decisions and Loops as represented in Scribble

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Decisions
• Decisions in C++ are written in exactly the same way many other
languages
• We can have a simple statement:

if (score >= 50) {

cout << “You passed!”;
}

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Decisions
• Or we can have a more complex statement:

if (score >= 50) {

cout << “You passed!”;
}
else {
cout << “Sorry, you didn’t pass”;
}
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Decisions
• And we can have nested loops…
if (score >= 50) {
cout << "You passed!";
if (score >= 80) {
cout << “You didn’t just pass, you aced it!”;
}
}
else {
cout << "Sorry, you didn't pass";
} 11
Expressions
• Remember an expression is something that must evaluate to true
or false
• All the usual Relational Operators apply
== (equal to) … double equals! single equals means assignment
!= (not equal to)
> (greater than)
< (less than)
>= (greater than or equal to)
<= (less than or equal to)
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Expressions
• Remember an expression is something that must evaluate to true or
false
• All our usual logical operators hold true too
! (logical NOT)
&& (logical AND)
|| (logical OR)

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Expressions
• So, for example, our expression can be nice and simple:
• (myAge >= 18)

• Or slightly more complex:

• (myAge <18) || (myAge >=65)
• (myAge >=18) && (myAge < 65)

• Or even more complex!

• if (((year%4 == 0) && (year%100 != 0)) || (year%400 == 0))

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More Complex Decisions – else if
• Decisions with 3 or more options usually move from nested IF’s to an
alternative
• We can have a sequence of IF’s using ELSE IF
if (expression1)
statement1;
else if (expression2)
statement2;
…
else
statementX;
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More Complex Decisions – else if
•For example
if (score >= 80) {
cout << "You got a HD!";
}
else if (score >= 70) {
cout << "You got a D!";
}
else if (score >= 60) {
cout << "You got a C!";
}
else if (score >= 50) {
cout << "You got a P!";
}
else {
cout << "Sorry, but you didn’t pass";
}
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More Complex Decisions – else if
• If expression1 is true, statement1 is executed and the rest of the
sequence is skipped
• Otherwise expression2 is tested, etc etc
• If no expression is true then the statement associated with the final
else clause is executed

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More Complex Decisions – switch
• Our other option is a switch statement (like Java)
switch (choice) {
case value1: statement1;
break;
case value2: statement2;
break;
…
default: statementX;
}
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More Complex Decisions – switch
• For example
switch (letter) {
case 'a':
cout << "a is for alpha" << endl;
break;
case 'b':
cout << "b is for bravo" << endl;
break;
default:
cout << "I don't know that letter?" << endl;
}
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More Complex Decisions – switch
• Notice the break statements after each case?
• We don’t need them, but if we don’t have them the code won’t stop
executing… even if the case isn’t true!
• Default handles the non-matching cases
• Remember you can’t test for expressions… only actual values
• It is also important to note that floating point numbers are also invalid

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Loops
• Repetition (i.e. loops) are our final control structure to look at
• Like decisions, their fundamental structure does not really differ
between programming environments
• We will look at three different variations:
• While (pre-test)
• Do… while (post-test)
• For (counted)

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While Loops
• A while loop is just a decision that keeps on executing while the
expression is true, evaluated at the beginning of the loop:

while (expression)
statement;

• As always, make sure your expression will change… otherwise you

run the risk of the dreaded infinite loop!

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While Loops
• For example
char again = 'y';
while (again == 'y') {
cout << "\nDo You Want To Play Again? (y/n): ";
cin >> again;
}

cout << "OK, catch you later";

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Do… While Loops
• A do… while loop is the same, however the expression is evaluated at
the end of the loop:

do
statement;
while (expression);

• Don’t forget the semi colon at the end!

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Do… While Loops
• For example
char again = 'y';
do {
cout << "\nDo You Want To Play Again? (y/n): ";
cin >> again ;
} while (again == 'y');

cout << "OK, catch you later";

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For Loops
• A For loop is typically used anytime we need to iterate over a range of
values:

for (initialisation; test; action)

statement;

• Initialisation happens once (at the start)

• Test happens at the start of each loop
• Action happens at the end of each loop
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For Loops
• For example
for (int x = 1; x < 10; x++) {
cout << x << “ “;
}
• We can initialise to whatever value, check whatever condition,
increment/decrement how we like
• Floating point numbers are allowed, but not recommended due to
precision issues

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For Loops
• Obviously, we don’t NEED for loops… we can perform the same task with a
standard while loop
• For example:
int x = 1; // Note this is the initialisation

while(x < 10) { // This is the test

cout << x << " ";

x++; // This happens each time

}
• But a for loop makes it nice and easy for us, as well as inherently telling us it
is a counted loop
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What Loop Do I Choose?
• How do we choose between repetition structures? As the programmer, you can decide.
There are some rules of thumb though:
• while loops are for loops with possibly zero iterations. These loops check to see if
the condition is meet before looping. So choose this if a loop may run zero or more
times.
• do…while loops are for loops with a least one iteration; where the program runs
the following code before it checks whether or not to loop another time.
• for loops are for counter-controlled loops where you know how many times you
want to loop the following code.

• It is important to note that not all programming languages have all three types of loop!

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A Word on Break and Continue
• break and continue statements can be used to violate the normal
behaviours of a loop
• As their names suggest:
• break will break out of a loop prematurely
• continue will force a loop back to the start prematurely

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Break and Continue
int x = 0;
while (true) {
x += 1;
if (x > 10) {
break;
}
if (x == 5) {
continue;
}
cout << x << endl;
}
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Break and Continue
• Only use break and continue statements if you really have to
• Most things can be done without them (switch statements are obvious
exceptions) and they can lead to both confusing code and sloppy
programming
• Please avoid!

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What Should I Do Now?
• Write more C++!
• Make sure you are still comfortable with decisions and loops and can
implement them in C++
• Start using arrays to store your data
• Get ready to get right into C++!

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