When looping through code, it’s common to use a counter variable. A counter (also known as an iterator) is a variable used in the conditional logic of the loop and (usually) incremented in value during each iteration through the code. For example:
// counter is initialized int wishes = 0; // conditional logic uses counter while (wishes < 3) { System.out.println("Wish granted."); // counter is incremented wishes++; }
In the above example, the counter wishes
gets initialized before the loop with a value of 0
, then the program will keep printing "Wish granted."
and adding 1
to wishes
as long as wishes
has a value of less than 3
. Once wishes
reaches a value of 3
or more, the program will exit the loop.
So the output would look like:
Wish granted. Wish granted. Wish granted.
We can also decrement counters like this:
int pushupsToDo = 10; while (pushupsToDo > 0) { doPushup(); pushupsToDo--; }
In the code above, the counter, pushupsToDo
, starts at 10, and increments down one at a time. When it hits 0, the loop exits.
Instructions
In Coffee.java, initialize an int
variable called cupsOfCoffee
with a value of 1
.
Create a while
loop that runs as long as cupsOfCoffee
is less than or equal to 100
.
Important: Inside the while
loop, increment cupsOfCoffee
by 1
to prevent an infinite loop.
Inside the while
loop above where you incremented cupsOfCoffee
print the following:
Fry drinks cup of coffee #1
The 1
in this statement should correspond with the current value of cupsOfCoffee
. When cupsOfCoffee
is 100
, this should be printed:
Fry drinks cup of coffee #100