while loop

Executes a statement repeatedly, until the value of condition becomes false. The test takes place before each iteration.

Syntax


attr(optional) `while (` condition `)` statement

attr(C++11)	-	any number of attributes
condition	-	any expression which is contextually convertible to bool or a declaration of a single variable with a brace-or-equals initializer. This expression is evaluated before each iteration, and if it yields false, the loop is exited. If this is a declaration, the initializer is evaluated before each iteration, and if the value of the declared variable converts to false, the loop is exited.
statement	-	any statement, typically a compound statement, which is the body of the loop

Explanation

If statement is a single statement (not a compound statement), the scope of variables declared in it is limited to the while loop as if it was a compound statement, in other words,

while (--x >= 0)
    int i;
// i goes out of scope

is the same as

while (--x >= 0) {
    int i;
} // i goes out of scope

If condition is a declaration such as T t = x, the declared variable is only in scope in the body of the loop, and is destroyed and recreated on every iteration, in other words, such while loop is equivalent to

label:
{ // start of condition scope
    T t = x;
    if (t) {
        statement
        goto label; // calls the destructor of t
    }
}

If the execution of the loop needs to be terminated at some point, break statement can be used as terminating statement.

If the execution of the loop needs to be continued at the end of the loop body, continue statement can be used as shortcut.

Notes

As part of the C++ forward progress guarantee, the behavior is undefined if a loop that has no observable behavior (does not make calls to I/O functions, access volatile objects, or perform atomic or synchronization operations) does not terminate. Compilers are permitted to remove such loops.

Keywords

while

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    // while loop with a single statement
    int i = 0;
    while (i < 10)
         i++;
    std::cout << i << '\n';

    // while loop with a compound statement
    int j = 2;
    while (j < 9) {
        std::cout << j << ' ';
        j += 2;
    }
    std::cout << '\n';

   // while loop with a declaration condition
   char cstr[] = "Hello";
   int k = 0;
   while (char c = cstr[k++])
       std::cout << c;
   std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

10
2 4 6 8 
Hello

Language
Headers
Freestanding and hosted implementations
Named requirements
Language support library
Concepts library (C++20)
Diagnostics library
Utilities library
Strings library
Containers library
Algorithms library
Iterators library
Numerics library
Input/output library
Localizations library
Regular expressions library (C++11)
Atomic operations library (C++11)
Thread support library (C++11)
Filesystem library (C++17)
Technical Specifications