Learning Java by Building Android Games - Second Edition

Loops

It would be completely reasonable to ask what loops have to do with programming. But they are exactly what the name implies. They are a way of repeating the same part of the code more than once or looping over the same part of code although potentially for a different outcome each time.

This can simply mean doing the same thing until the code being looped over (iterated) prompts the loop to end. It could be a predetermined number of iterations as specified by the loop code itself or it might be until a predetermined situation or condition is met. Or it could be a combination of more than one of these things. Along with if, else, and switch, which we will learn about in the next chapter, loops are part of the Java control flow statements