do-while loop in R
Noticing that user 42-'s perfect approach {
* "do while" = "repeat until not"
* The code equivalence:
do while (condition) # in other language
..statements..
endo
repeat{ # in R
..statements..
if(! condition){ break } # Negation is crucial here!
}
} did not receive enough attention from the others, I'll emphasize and bring forward his approach via a concrete example. If one does not negate the condition in do-while (via !
or by taking negation), then distorted situations (1. value persistence 2. infinite loop) exist depending on the course of the code.
In Gauss:
proc(0)=printvalues(y);
DO WHILE y < 5;
y+1;
y=y+1;
ENDO;
ENDP;
printvalues(0); @ run selected code via F4 to get the following @
1.0000000
2.0000000
3.0000000
4.0000000
5.0000000
In R:
printvalues <- function(y) {
repeat {
y=y+1;
print(y)
if (! (y < 5) ) {break} # Negation is crucial here!
}
}
printvalues(0)
# [1] 1
# [1] 2
# [1] 3
# [1] 4
# [1] 5
I still insist that without the negation of the condition in do-while, Salcedo's answer is wrong. One can check this via removing negation symbol in the above code.
See ?Control
or the R Language Definition:
> y=0
> while(y <5){ print( y<-y+1) }
[1] 1
[1] 2
[1] 3
[1] 4
[1] 5
So do_while
does not exist as a separate construct in R, but you can fake it with:
repeat( { expressions}; if (! end_cond_expr ) {break} )
If you want to see the help page you cannot type ?while
or ?repeat
at the console but rather need to use ?'repeat'
or ?'while'
. All the "control-constructs" including if
are on the same page and all need character quoting after the "?" so the interpreter doesn't see them as incomplete code and give you a continuation "+".
Building on the other answers, I wanted to share an example of using the while loop construct to achieve a do-while behaviour. By using a simple boolean variable in the while condition (initialized to TRUE), and then checking our actual condition later in the if statement. One could also use a break keyword instead of the continue <- FALSE inside the if statement (probably more efficient).
df <- data.frame(X=c(), R=c())
x <- x0
continue <- TRUE
while(continue)
{
xi <- (11 * x) %% 16
df <- rbind(df, data.frame(X=x, R=xi))
x <- xi
if(xi == x0)
{
continue <- FALSE
}
}
Pretty self explanatory.
repeat{
statements...
if(condition){
break
}
}
Or something like that I would think. To get the effect of the do while loop, simply check for your condition at the end of the group of statements.