Flow Control in Programming: Making Decisions and Repeating Actions
When writing programs, you don’t just want the computer to run code line by line blindly—you want it to make decisions, repeat tasks, and react to conditions. This is where flow control comes in.
Flow control lets your program choose different paths or repeat blocks of code based on logic and conditions.
Key Flow Control Structures
1. Conditional Statements (Decision Making)
These let your program choose which code to run based on conditions.
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if statement
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if-else statement
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if-else if-else ladder
2. Switch Statement
A cleaner way to select from many options:
3. Loops (Repetition)
Loops allow you to repeat code blocks multiple times.
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for loop
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while loop
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do-while loop
4. Control Flow Keywords
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break: Exits a loop or switch statement immediately. -
continue: Skips the current iteration and moves to the next loop cycle. -
return: Exits from a method and optionally returns a value.
Why Flow Control Matters
Flow control gives your programs intelligence and flexibility, allowing you to:
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Perform different actions based on user input or data.
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Automate repetitive tasks efficiently.
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Build complex logic and interactive applications.
Summary
| Structure | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
| if/else | Conditional execution | if (x > 0) {...} else {...} |
| switch | Multi-way selection | switch(day) {...} |
| for loop | Repeat fixed times | for(int i=0; i<5; i++) {...} |
| while loop | Repeat while condition true | while(condition) {...} |
| do-while loop | Repeat at least once | do {...} while(condition); |
