Sams Teach Yourself Java™ in 24 Hours, Sixth Edition

while Loops

The while loop does not have as many different sections as a for loop. The only thing it needs is a conditional test, which accompanies the while statement. The following is an example of a while loop:

while (gameLives > 0) {    // the statements inside the loop go here}

This loop continues repeating until the gameLives variable is no longer greater than 0.

The while statement tests the condition at the beginning of the loop before any statements in the loop have been handled. If the tested condition is false when a program reaches the while statement for the first time, the statements inside the loop are ignored.

If the while condition is true, the loop goes around once and tests the while condition again. If the tested condition ...