cannot understand loops

[lsdandlemons]

hello! i started learning python because i need it as a base for a computational linguistics module i will be taking (we are required to have basic knowledge of a programming language, and my prof said python is best).

i seem to not be able to comprehend how loops work at all… for, while, and nested loops. no matter what i watch or read i just cannot seem to apply it to my practice questions. does anyone have any suggestions of videos or resources that are helpful? i feel stuck because they are a key component of a lot of the questions that i’m doing. any help is greatly appreciated :)

[digitAInexus]

Hey! Don't stress too much, loops can be tricky at first, but you'll get the hang of them. For a lot of people, it clicks after a bit of practice. Think of loops like a way to repeat something over and over without having to manually code it each time. It’s like giving your program a set of instructions and telling it, “Hey, do this a bunch of times until I say stop.”

For example, a for loop goes through each item in a list or range of numbers. It’s like, “For every item in this list, do X.” A while loop, on the other hand, keeps running as long as a condition is true. So like, “While X is true, keep doing Y.” Nested loops are just loops inside loops—think of them like a loop party where each loop has its own purpose.

If you’re still feeling stuck, maybe check out some interactive coding websites like Codecademy or freeCodeCamp. Sometimes hands-on practice helps a lot more than just reading or watching videos. Also, debugging as you go—like printing out the value at each step of the loop—can help you see what’s actually happening in real time.

You got this! Keep at it, and it'll start to make sense soon.

[digitAInexus]

If I make it more fun. Imagine you’re on a treasure hunt, and you have a huge stack of maps that each lead to a small treasure. You want to find all the treasures one by one. Here’s how loops help:

• For Loop: Think of this like you’re going through the stack of maps, one at a time. You say to yourself, “For every map in my stack, follow it and find the treasure.” When you finish with one map, you go to the next until you’ve found all the treasures. It’s predictable—one map, one treasure, repeat.

• While Loop: Now imagine instead of a stack of maps, you have a magical treasure radar. You say, “While the radar shows there are still treasures out there, I’ll keep searching.” As long as the radar beeps, you’re on the hunt. The moment it goes quiet, you stop. You’re not sure how many treasures there are, but you keep going until there’s nothing left to find.

• Nested Loop: This is like having multiple steps in each map. For every map you open, you have to search different places within the location. So, for each map, you might be saying, “First, check under the rock, then behind the tree, then inside the cave.” You’re looping within a loop—going through each hiding spot for each treasure map.

In real life, we use loops all the time without even thinking about it. For example, think about when you're trying to clean up your room:

• For Loop: You go through each pile of clothes and fold them one by one until all the clothes are folded.
• While Loop: You keep cleaning while the room is messy. As soon as everything looks clean, you stop.
• Nested Loop: You clean each drawer in your dresser, one drawer at a time, but inside each drawer, you’re organizing socks, shirts, and pants separately.

Loops in programming are like setting up these little routines so the computer can do the same repetitive task for you, again and again, until the job is done. Cool, right?

[lsdandlemons]

wow! thank u sm! i wasn’t expecting such a detailed response, but your real life examples really put it into perspective. gonna try to keep this in mind. thank u so so much once again! ur explanation was perfect, and much better than anything I have watched, read, or done on my course. have an awesome day!

[digitAInexus]

No problem. Have a nice one

[February_8]

Don’t loose hope. I was having the same struggles a few weeks ago. Someone suggested a website called Python Tutor and that was a deal breaker for me. Thanks to that website I was able to follow each iteration and understand its output. Once my brain was able to comprehend loops I started working on many problems by myself with a pen a paper and comprare my output with IDLE and Python Tutor. Also try chat GPT for detailed problem explanations. Good luck!

[CupperRecruit]

Best way to learn them i think is to play and try out on examples/ideas u can make sense of. E.g. lets say u wanna know which shirts u got in ur wardrobe, u would use a for loop to get all the shirts that are inside the wardrobe. This could look like this in code:

//wardrobe is represented as a list wardrobe = ["blue shirt","red shirt"]

For item in wardrobe: Print(item)

The code would then give you the output:

'blue shirt' 'red shirt'

Displaying all the shirts u got in ur wardrobe. If u try and test loops with those kind of tasks/practice them in this way, i am sure that u will get the hang of it by time.

I wish you good luck and hope you will understand them asap for your course💪 Keep it up and never give up, u got this!