Return to Topic Menu | Computer Science Main Page | MathBits.com | Terms of Use

 

Nested Loops

We have seen the advantages of using various methods of iteration, or looping.
Now let's take a look at what happens when we combine looping procedures. 

     The placing of one loop inside the body of another loop is called nesting.  When you "nest" two loops, the outer loop takes control of the number of complete repetitions of the inner loop.  While all types of loops may be nested, the most commonly nested loops are for loops.


nested loops

    

Let's look at an example of nested loops at work.

We have all seen web page counters that resemble the one shown below ( well, OK, maybe not quite this spastic!!).  Your car's odometer works in a similar manner.

This counter (if it worked properly) and your car's odometer are little more than seven or eight nested for loops, each going from 0 to 9.  The far-right number iterates the fastest, visibly moving from 0 to 9 as you drive your car or increasing by one as people visit a web site.  A for loop which imitates the movement of the far-right number is shown below:

for(num1 = 0; num1 <= 9; num1++)
{
      cout << num1 << endl;
}

     The far-right number, however, is not the only number that is moving.  All of the other numbers are moving also, but at a much slower pace.  For every 10 numbers that move in the column on the right, the adjacent column is incremented by one.  The two nested loops shown below may be used to imitate the movement of the two far-right numbers of a web counter or an odometer:

The number of digits in the web page counter or the odometer determine the number of nested loops needed to imitate the process.

     

When working with nested loops, the outer loop changes only after the inner loop is completely finished (or is interrupted.).

Let's take a look at a trace of two nested loops.  In order to keep the trace manageable, the number of iterations have been shortened.

for(num2 = 0; num2 <= 3;  num2++)
{
      for(num1 = 0; num1 <= 2; num1++)
      {
            cout<< num2<< "   " << num1<< endl;
      }
}
       
Memory Screen
int num2  int num1
0 0
1
2
end loop
1 0
1
2
end loop
2 0
1
2
end loop
3 0
1
2
end loop
end loop

    Remember, in the memory, for loops will register a value one beyond (or the step beyond) the requested ending value in order to disengage the loop.

0   0
0   1
0   2
1   0
1   1
1   2
2   0
2   1
2   2
3   0
3   1
3   2

Are we getting a little loopy?

 

 Return to Topic Menu | Computer Science Main Page | MathBits.com | Terms of Use