Programming and Data Types

while

The while loop executes a statement or group of statements repeatedly as long as the controlling expression is true (1). Its syntax is

• while expression
      statements
  end
  

If the expression evaluates to a matrix, all its elements must be 1 for execution to continue. To reduce a matrix to a scalar value, use the all and any functions.

For example, this while loop finds the first integer n for which n! (n factorial) is a 100-digit number.

• n = 1;
  while prod(1:n) < 1e100
      n = n + 1;
  end
  

Exit a while loop at any time using the break statement.

while Statements and Empty Arrays

A while condition that reduces to an empty array represents a false condition. That is,

• while A, S1, end
  

never executes statement S1 when A is an empty array.

switch

for