Java Control Flow

Java control flow

Created By: chatGPT

In Java, control flow refers to the order in which individual statements, instructions, or function calls are executed or evaluated in a program. There are several ways to control the flow of execution, including conditional statements and loops.

Conditional Statements

Conditional statements allow execution based on certain conditions. The most common types are if, else if, and else. The basic structure is as follows:

if (condition) {
    // code to execute if condition is true
} else if (anotherCondition) {
    // code to execute if the second condition is true
} else {
    // code to execute if neither condition is true
}

You can also use the switch statement for multiple conditions based on the value of a variable. This is useful for checking many possible values without using multiple if-else statements.

switch (variable) {
    case value1:
        // code for case value1
        break;
    case value2:
        // code for case value2
        break;
    default:
        // code if no case matches
}

Loops

Loops are used to execute a block of code multiple times. The primary types of loops in Java are for, while, and do-while loops.

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    // code to execute repeatedly
}

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

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

In these loops, the block of code will repeat until the specified condition is no longer met. The for loop is particularly useful when the number of iterations is known beforehand, whereas while and do-while loops are ideal for scenarios where the number of iterations depends on a condition.

Break and Continue

Finally, you can control the flow within loops using the break and continue statements. break will exit the loop completely, while continue skips the current iteration and proceeds to the next one.

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    if (i == 5) {
        break; // exits the loop when i is 5
    }
    if (i % 2 == 0) {
        continue; // skips the rest of the loop body for even i
    }
    // code to execute for odd i
}