For the Python version of this lesson, please click here.

During programming, you may encounter situations when you want to repeat a block of code a certain number of times. Repeating the same code, again and again, is slow, untidy, and is prone to errors. These kinds of problems in programming are dealt with concepts called loops and iterations. This automates the process of applying a similar operation to a collection of elements, or statements within a program.

One example where loops are extremely helpful is repeated calculations for different values. Imagine you need to calculate the final scores of each student in a class of 30 students. Performing the same calculations for each student requires time and is an exhausting process. In situations like this, loops are extremely helpful. We can specify the calculations within the code block of the loop, and the program can automatically calculate the scores of each student. Using loops, the burdensome process of calculations is reduced to only a few lines of code!