The while statement is used to repeatedly execute code while a condition is true.
| Grammar |
| while-statement = [post] while <expression> <statements> |
Without the post, the expression is checked first and while true, the statements are repeatedly executed. If the expression is false the first time, the statements will not execute. With the post, the condition is checked after the statements execute, so the statements will execute at least once.
Inside the statements, a break statement will exit the loop and a continue statement will skip the remaining statements and evaluate the expression again. In either case, an if statement is used to control when the loop is broken or continued (otherwise it would be pointless to have further statements in the loop).
# Example 1
while obj.someCondition
obj.process
# Example 2
while node
print node
node = node.next
# Example 3
while node
if not node.isActive
print 'skipping inactive node: [node]'
continue
print node
node.process
node = node.next
# Example 4
while true
input = Console.readLine
if input is nil or input.trim.toLower == 'exit'
break
.processInput(input)
# Example 5
post while line and line.trim == ''
line = stream.readLine