Laboratory Exercise on Loops

Goals

The goal of this lab is to introduce loops in C programming to students and increase familiarity with different types of loops.

Exercises

In this lab, you will gain practice with several types of loops. Before beginning the lab, move to the directory you created for labs and copy the file loops.c to your directory and open the file in emacs. You may wish to comment out each loop after the exercise, but that is up to you.

1. Simple Repetition

   One of the simplest uses of a loop is to perform an action a specific number of times. In loops.c, beep twelve times in a row, using only one beep command.

   Hint: use a for loop.

2. Rising Pitch Loop

   The purpose of a loop is to repeat a set of actions, and loops can modify actions in every iteration. In loops.c, write a loop that beeps once at 500 Hz, then increases by 20 Hz every beep for twelve beeps.

3. Nested Loops

   You've seen that loops can statically repeat an action, or change the action it performs once per loop. One way to combine both functions is to have nested loops; that is, execute an action in the one loop, and have the other loop modify the action performed. In loops.c, write a program that consecutively beeps more times in a row, until seven beeps in a row are reached. So, the robot would beep once and sleep for one second, then beep twice and sleep for one second, then three times and sleep for one second, and so on.

4. Infinite Loops

   One characteristic of loops is that there must be an "end" condition, or the loop will never stop. In loops.c, write a loop using while that beeps for one second every iteration, and make the continue condition true. What happens?

   Hint: The key combination ctrl-c ends a program in the terminal. Turning the Scribbler 2 off or pressing the reset butt resets the robot.

5. Comparing do ... while and while loops

   Change the loop from the previous exercise, and make the continue condition false. What happens?

   Try writing a do ... while loop that has the continue condition false. What happens? Is this different from the while loop?

6. Considering Loops

   Write two sentences for each type of loop, describing the advantages and disadvantages of each type of loop.

7. Songs

   In a new file, write a program that plays a song (or use one of the songs from the last module), and write a loop that plays the song three times in a row.

For Those with Extra Time

Hint: use the line printf("%4d%16.4lf\n", quarts, liters); to keep proper spacing.

Example Output:

Table of quart and liter equivalents
Quarts           Liters
   1             0.9463
   2             1.8927 
   3             2.8390 
   4             3.7853 
   5             4.7317 
   6             5.6780 
   7             6.6243 
   8             7.5707 
   9             8.5170 
  10             9.4633 
  11            10.4097 
  12            11.3560 

Reminder: Complete Evaluation Form

When you have finished this lab, be sure to fill out its evaluation form in the "Lab Evaluation" section for CSC 161 on Pioneer Web

This document is available on the World Wide Web as

     http://www.walker.cs.grinnell.edu/courses/161.fa11/modules/module-cond-loops-testing/loops-lab.shtml

created July 20 2011 by April O'Neill last full revision July 29 2011 by April O'Neill minor editing 24 August 2011 by Henry M. Walker
For more information, please contact Henry M. Walker at walker@cs.grinnell.edu.