A for loop in programming is a control flow statement for specifying iteration.
It executes a block
of code a specified number of times. It's often used when you know the exact number of times
you want to loop.
1. Basic Iteration over a List
This is the most common use of a for loop. It iterates over each item in a list and performs an
action.
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
for x in fruits:
print(x)
Output:
apple
banana
cherry
This loop goes through the fruits list, assigns each element to the variable x one by one, and
prints it.
2. Looping with the range() Function
The range() function generates a sequence of numbers. It's useful when you need to repeat a
task a specific number of times.
for i in range(5):
print(i)
Output:
0
1
2
3
4
The range(5) generates numbers from 0 up to (but not including) 5. The loop runs 5 times,
printing i's value each time.
3. Iterating Over a String
A for loop can also iterate over the characters of a string.
for char in "Hello":
print(char)
Output:
H
e
l
l
o
Here, the loop treats the string "Hello" as a sequence of characters and processes them
individually.
4. Looping Through a Dictionary
You can iterate through a dictionary's keys, values, or both.
person = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30, "city": "New York"}
for key, value in person.items():
print(f"{key}: {value}")
Output:
name: Alice
age: 30
city: New York
The .items() method returns a view of the dictionary's key-value pairs, allowing the loop to
unpack each pair into key and value variables.
5. Nested for Loops
A nested loop is a loop inside another loop. The inner loop completes all its iterations for each
single iteration of the outer loop.
for i in range(3): # Outer loop
for j in range(2): # Inner loop
print(f"i = {i}, j = {j}")
Output:
i = 0, j = 0
i = 0, j = 1
i = 1, j = 0
i = 1, j = 1
i = 2, j = 0
i = 2, j = 1
For each value of i, the inner loop runs completely for both j = 0 and j = 1. This is useful for
tasks like traversing a 2D grid or matrix.
