Question

At the moment, I have this:

 do{
           if (i < y){ //y is a constant

               ObsHandler.obsPartsHandler(); //increment i twice
               ObsHandler.search(); 

           }
           else { 
               break;
           }

       } while (!endline.equals(null)); // endline is changed during each loop cycle

With this loop, and the inputs I have, endline can not be null; this renders the while loop breaking condition redundant. When I try and convert this loop to a for loop, I get a misplaced construct error from Eclipse.

i.e:

for (i < y) {
       ObsHandler.obsPartsHandler(); //increment i twice
       ObsHandler.search(); }

Whilst, the while loop I have works, it seems like bad practice to me.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

Answer 1

If you don’t need to check endLine, you can still use a while loop:

while (i < y) {    
    ObsHandler.obsPartsHandler(); //increment i twice
    ObsHandler.search(); 
}

If you also need to check endLine:

while (i < y && !endline.equals(null)) {    
    ObsHandler.obsPartsHandler(); //increment i twice
    ObsHandler.search(); 
}

Note: the difference between do / while (your initial code) and while { } is that in the first case the loop is always run at least once. With a while { }, it is not run at all if the condition is not true at the beginning. That is the same behaviour as a for loop (won’t run if the condition is false before the loop).