Thread: What can be legally inside FOR statement?

Hi guys

I have a question for how many ways to use FOR statement?
I thought FOR is only used in starting a loop, like below two forms:
for (initialization; termination; increment) or For each loop(Type item : lstItem)
But today I saw FOR is used in this statement:
for (Vertex vertex = target; vertex != null; vertex = vertex.previous)
This format is not loop at all, what is it? I am wondering if there is anything else that can be put inside () after FOR?
Can any explain this?

Many thanks

A for loop must have this syntax (using regex notation where ? means it's optional):

for(expression?; condition?; expression?)
statement

where expression is any valid single expression
condition is any expression which evaluates to true or false. Note that if no condition is given, it is automatically evaluated to be true.
and statement is any single statement (either a block statement or a line statement)

// all of these are valid. However, whether you should be using for loops like this is debatable
for(int i = 0; i < 100; ++i)
{}
 
StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder();
for(Scanner reader = new Scanner(System.in()); reader.hasNextLine(); b.append(reader.nextLine()));
 
for(;;) // infinite loop which does nothing
{}
 
for(;false;); // does nothing. Note that the compiler will likely complain about "unreachable code"

There are also for-each loops. These have a slightly different syntax.

for(type var_name : {Iterable<type>_var | type[]})
statement

where type is any valid Java type
var_name is the name of the variable to use inside the for-each loop
Iterable<type>_var is any expression which evaluates to an Iterable of type type
type[] is any expression which evaluates to an array of type type
statement has the same definition as a regular for-loop

valid constructs of for-each loops:

int ints[] = {1,2,3};
ArrayList<String> strings = new ArrayList<String>();
for(int i : ints)
{}
 
for(String s : strings) // ArrayList implements Iterable
{}

No, a statement can be a line statement or a block statement.

This is perfectly fine code and will print out 0 to 5. However, it is generally considered good practice to wrap statements after control structures (if/else, while, do/while, switch, for) with {}

for(int i = 0; i <= 5; ++i)
     System.out.println(i);

No, the parser will take only 1 statement (statement A). The other statements are considered outside the for-loop scope, and thus are not executed as part of the for loop.

That's be similar to doing something like this:

for(int i = 0; i <= 5; ++i)
{
    System.out.println(i);
}// the whole block is statement A
{
    System.out.println("this is statement B");
}// the whole block is statement B
{
    System.out.println("this is statement C");
}// the whole block is statement C

Here, again only statement A (which happens to be a block) gets executed in the for loop.

A semi-formal definition of statement:
statement = (expression ";") | ("{" statement* "}")

"Necessity is the mother of Invention" or " Need is mother of Inveiton".

So u can create varied different ways of using for loop or any other loop.

No. of our frnds explained you various ways of using for loop.
But the initial thing is


for(expression?; condition?; expression?)
{
statements...
}

and i will appreciate if u will do R&d on this and found some other ways too.

Now i m adding one for you.

We can also use for like:

for(int i=0 ; i<100;i++);
System.out.println(i);

Please run and feel difference between the above and below code

for(int i=0 ; i<100;i++)
System.out.println(i);



Best of luck

for(int i=0 ; i<100;i++);
System.out.println(i);

This is the same as:

for(int i=0 ; i<100;i++)
    ;
System.out.println(i);

An empty semi-colon counts as a statement. So the for-loop statement is the empty statement, and System.out.println() executes after the for loop (though it would fail because i was declared in the for-loop scope and invalid outside the for-loop). It's considered an empty statement (because it does nothing). Though I did miss that in my definition of statement.

new definition which allows for empty statements:
statement = (expression? ";") | ("{" statement* "}")

So, following the for-loop construct (added quotes to clarify definition a bit):
"for" "(" expression? ";" condition? ";" expression? ")"
statement