For & Foreach Loops

For & Foreach Loops

The for loop

The for loop packs three things into one line: a start value, a condition, and an increment:

for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
  Console.WriteLine(i);
}

This prints 0 1 2 3 4.

Parts of the loop:

1. Statement 1 - int i = 0: runs once at the start.
2. Statement 2 - i < 5: the condition, checked before each run.
3. Statement 3 - i++: runs after each loop, updating the counter.

The foreach loop

foreach is made for looping through collections like arrays. It's simpler - no counter needed:

string[] cars = { "Volvo", "BMW", "Ford", "Mazda" };
foreach (string car in cars)
{
  Console.WriteLine(car);
}

Each element of the collection is assigned to car in turn.

foreach vs for

• foreach - read every element of a collection, clean and safe.
• for - more control when you need indexes, counting, or skipping.

Nested loops

You can put a loop inside a loop. The inner loop completes fully for each run of the outer one.

TL;DR

• for = start value + condition + increment.
• foreach iterates collections without a counter.
• foreach is ideal for reading every element of an array.