A while
loop consists of a condition(s) and as long as that condition(s) is true
, the set of statements inside the while
block is executed repeatedly. A while
loop is the only necessary repetition construct. The for-loop
, can be duplicated using a while
loop with far more control.
The general syntax of a while
loop in JavaScript is given below. Here, condition
is a statement. It can consist of multiple sub-statements i.e. there can be multiple conditions.
For as long as condition
evaluates to true
, the code written inside the while
block keeps on executing. As soon as condition
evaluates to false
, the loop breaks.
while(condition){// code statements to run repeatedly}
For the condition
to eventually evaluate to false
, it is essential that the control variables being used inside the conditional statement are updated properly.
An improper update may result in an infinite loop; the program is stuck inside the while
loop, having found no terminating condition and continues executing the statements within the loop.
Take a look at the following example. The while
loop runs as long as the condition, y <= 10
, is being met. The statements on line 6-8 execute if the expression inside the parenthesis evaluates to true
.
When the expression evaluates to false
the program comes out of the loop and prints the final values of x
and y
.
var x = 4, y = 0, i = 1;// the while loop will run till y<=10// the loop will iterate 3 timeswhile (y <= 10){y += xx += 1console.log("Iteration: ", i++, "; x:", x, "; y:", y);}console.log("the value of x is:", x);console.log("the value of y is:", y);