87.8k views
5 votes
Which loops are in greater danger of becoming infinite - for or while?

User Chibuike
by
7.9k points

1 Answer

5 votes

Final answer:

The while loop is generally more prone to becoming infinite compared to the for loop. The while loop relies on a condition to be true to continue iterating, and if that condition always evaluates to true, the loop will continue indefinitely. On the other hand, the for loop uses an explicit counter and a fixed number of iterations, making it less likely to become infinite.

Step-by-step explanation:

The while loop is generally more prone to becoming infinite compared to the for loop. This is because the while loop relies on a condition to be true to continue iterating, and if that condition always evaluates to true, the loop will continue indefinitely. On the other hand, the for loop uses an explicit counter and a fixed number of iterations, making it less likely to become infinite.

For example, consider the following code:

int i = 0;
while (i < 5) {
System.out.println(i);
i++;
}

This while loop will execute 5 times and then terminate because the condition i < 5 will eventually evaluate to false. However, if the condition is never met (e.g., i <= 5), the loop will run infinitely.

On the other hand, a for loop provides more control over traversal and termination conditions:

for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
System.out.println(i);
}

This for loop will also execute 5 times and then terminate because the counter i will reach the termination condition i < 5.

User Beetree
by
7.8k points