C Control Flow

C control flow

Created By: chatGPT

In C programming, control flow dictates the order in which statements, instructions, or function calls are executed. The primary control structures used to manage flow include conditional statements, loops, and jump statements. Each of these plays a crucial role in determining program logic.

Conditional statements allow the program to execute different code segments based on specific conditions. The most common conditional statements are if, else if, and else. Here’s how they are structured:

if (condition) {
    // code to execute if the condition is true
} else if (another_condition) {
    // code to execute if the another condition is true
} else {
    // code to execute if both conditions are false
}

Loops are used to execute a block of code multiple times until a specified condition is met. C supports several types of loops, including for, while, and do-while. Here's a breakdown of each:

for (initialization; condition; increment) {
    // code to execute on each iteration
}

while (condition) {
    // code to execute while the condition is true
}

do {
    // code to execute at least once
} while (condition);

Jump statements alter the flow of control unconditionally. Key jump statements in C include break, continue, and return. These can be used to exit from loops or functions prematurely.

while (condition) {
    if (another_condition) {
        break; // exit the loop
    }
    // code to execute
}

for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    if (i % 2 == 0) {
        continue; // skip the rest of the loop for even numbers
    }
    // code to execute for odd i
}

return value; // exits the function and returns a value

Combining these control flow structures allows for creating complex logic in C programs. Here's a simple example that uses both conditional statements and loops:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        if (i % 2 == 0) {
            printf("%d is even\n", i);
        } else {
            printf("%d is odd\n", i);
        }
    }
    return 0;
}