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Intro to While Loops in Python

Katy Gibson
Mastering While Loops Katy Gibson 01:11
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Do you know the difference between indefinite and definite iterations? In this lesson you’ll learn, that the while-loop is an example of an indefinite iteration whereas the for-loop is an example of a definite iteration. Furthermore, the characteristics of an indefinite iteration are revealed: They run forever until a certain condition is met.

00:00 Hey! This is Katie from Real Python. In this series of videos, you’re going to learn about the Python while loop, or indefinite iteration.

00:07 So, if you’re familiar with coding or programming, you’ve probably seen something similar to this. Basically, it gives us a way to execute or iterate over a block of code multiple times. Whenever I say iteration, there’s actually two types: indefinite iteration and definite iteration.

00:25 Indefinite iteration is going to run forever until a condition is met. Our while loop is an example of indefinite iteration, so while this condition returns True, I’m going to print "hello", or execute this block of code. Definite iteration, however, is going to run as many times as indicated in the code.

00:43 So our for loop is saying to print i for however many i’s there are in a. In this series, you’re going to focus on indefinite iteration, which is the while loop.

00:54 You’re going to learn about the structure and use of the Python while loop, how to break out of a loop, and lastly, explore infinite loops.

01:02 In the next video, we’re going to start with the basic structure of a Python while loop. Hope to see you there!

lewiuberg on Dec. 1, 2019

Hi! Fyi, this course didn’t show up when I searched for “while” :)

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