Why are loops used in Visual BASIC programming?

Answer 1

Loops are one of the most important structures in any programming language. They enable you to repeat certain commands over and over again, as many times as you need instead of having to type in the same command lots of times. Say you wanted to count from 1 to 100 and display the numbers. You could use 100 commands to do it which would be a slow and tedious way. With a loop you can tell the computer to repeat the same command 100 times, and just automatically change the number so that it starts at 1 and keeps on going until it reaches 100. In the slow way you would do something like this:

Msgbox("1")

Msgbox("2")

Msgbox("3")

...and so on up to 100, so you would have 100 lines of colde. With a loop you could do it all in just 3 lines using a FOR loop:

For n=1 to 100

Msgbox(n)

Next

It first gives n the value of 1 and displays it and then gives it the value of 2 and displays it and then gives it the value of 3 and displays it and so on. So it starts at 1 displays it and then goes to the next value, and keeps doing so until it reaches 100. If you then wanted to do it up to 200 or 1000 or whatever, it will still be just those 3 lines of code with just the 100 in the first line changed to whatever value you wanted. Programming is full of repetitive actions, so loops are essential. All languages provide different kinds of loops.