What is the difference between bounded loop and unbounded loop in programming?

Answer 1

Bounded loops are also known as counting loops because they will iterate a pre-determined number of times before terminating. For example:

for x=1 to 15

print x

next x

Here, the variable x is incremented by 1 at the end of each iteration, thus the loop execute 15 times in total.

Unbounded loops are not defined by a specific count, but by some other condition. Unbounded loops are often called infinite loops, however there must always be an exit condition that is reachable.

x = rand()

while x<>0

print x

x = rand()

end while

Here, x is set to some random value. So long as x is non-zero, its value will print and x will be set to another random value. The loop may not execute at all (if x is initially zero), but once started it is not known how many times it will iterate until the exit condition is satisfied.