For Loop in python 3 : How to become a Python Jedi - Beginners Python Programming Tutorial - Part 7

I am back again with another part in the beginner python programming tutorial series. We will continue with "Loops" but this time we are going to learn how to use for loop in python 3. 

Difference between For loop and While Loop

A "For Loop" and "While Loop" have a common connection that both are looping statement, but major difference is that unlike while loop, a for loop gets executed a specified number of times.

We can break down the For loop into the following components(Refer to the for loop flow chart below).

• for keyword
• variable name
• call to the range function
• colon operator
• clause or block of code

Hovering over the flow-chart

The above flow-chart is..well horrible I know, but I make my own drawings because I can't afford an artist. So, bear with me. In the above flowchart is a very basicy, laymanish representation of a for loop. The decision box contains the For statement along-with it's soulmate i.e the Range function. As long as the variable I falls within the range x then the control flows down to the underlying code and it continues in the loop till the time I is less than x.

Digging deeper down

We will formulate a simple code to understand how to implement the concept we learned above

Run the above code and the output shall be

I will draw better flowcharts from next time

I will draw better flowcharts from next time

I will draw better flowcharts from next time

Now how exactly the above code works? It's simple, the control goes to the for statement where it sets an
initial value of 0 to the variable i, then it checks if this value is less than the value within the range function. 
Which in our case resolves to true so the control moves to the print statement and then prints the statement 
within it and then immediately increments the value of i by 1, after which the control again moves to the for 

statement. This process continues till the value of i is less then the value within the range function. Once the 

value is equal to the range function ,the control exists the loop.

Something more from the Range()

Now you must be wanting more from the Range() function rather then just handling the range, maybe some more customisation.  I don't blame you, it's human nature to want more, we are never satisfied with less. Looking into this the good guys at python have imparted some more room for customisation in the Range function and this we shall see in the below code.

In our above code snippet everything is same as the previous example but this time we have introduced a start position 1 which is known as the step-in and an end position 3 which is known as the step-out. What it means is that the control enter the loop when the index is at the count-1 and exists the loop when the index is at count-2 and because of this the statement is printed only 2 times instead of 3.

Conclusion

Now I must say that we have just scratched the surface for loops in python, but if you are in a mood to make a deeper dive into understand the loops in details then you should definitely go for this book Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners . I started my coding journey with this book and I believe you would get something out of it too.

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Take me to Python Tutorial - Part 6                                                      To Be Continued ....