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Loop Control Statements

With loop control statements, you can repeatedly execute a block of code. There are two types of loops:

  • for statements loop a specific number of times, and keep track of each iteration with an incrementing index variable.

    For example, preallocate a 10-element vector, and calculate five values:

    x = ones(1,10);
for n = 2:6
    x(n) = 2 * x(n - 1);
end

  • while statements loop as long as a condition remains true.

    For example, find the first integer n for which factorial(n) is a 100-digit number:

    n = 1;
nFactorial = 1;
while nFactorial < 1e100
    n = n + 1;
    nFactorial = nFactorial * n;
end

Each loop requires the end keyword.

It is a good idea to indent the loops for readability, especially when they are nested (that is, when one loop contains another loop):

A = zeros(5,100);
for m = 1:5
    for n = 1:100
        A(m, n) = 1/(m + n - 1);
    end
end

You can programmatically exit a loop using a break statement, or skip to the next iteration of a loop using a continue statement. For example, count the number of lines in the help for the magic function (that is, all comment lines until a blank line):

fid = fopen('magic.m','r');
count = 0;
while ~feof(fid)
    line = fgetl(fid);
    if isempty(line)
       break
    elseif ~strncmp(line,'%',1)
       continue
    end
    count = count + 1;
end
fprintf('%d lines in MAGIC help\n',count);
fclose(fid);

Tip

If you inadvertently create an infinite loop (a loop that never ends on its own), stop execution of the loop by pressing Ctrl+C.

See Also

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