Question

I want to have a for statement that repeats until a given int reaches a certain value.

For example…

for (int variable = 0; variable < other_variable; variable++) {

The problem with this is that the for statement will never end. It will continue to repeat endlessly. What have I done wrong?

This is my code…

boolean itemexist_check = false;
do {
    int i2 = m_area.m_items.size();

    for (int i = 0; i < i2; i++) {
        String s2 = m_area.m_items.get(i).returnName();
        System.out.println("Checking...");

        if (s2.contains(s)) {
            System.out.println("You take the " + s2 + ".");
            itemexist_check = true;
            player.addItem(m_area.m_items.get(i));
            m_area.m_items.remove(i);
        }
        else {
            //do nothing, repeat loop
        }
    } 
}
while (itemexist_check == false);

In this code, m_area.m_items.size() would return 1, so i2 would be 1.

Answer 1

There are several possibilities:

1. you change variable inside the body of the loop;
2. you change other_variable inside the body of the loop;
3. other_variable is set to a large value, in which case the loop might take a long time to terminate;
4. your code never completes a certain iteration of the loop, for example:
   • it’s getting stuck inside a nested loop as suggested by @Eng.Fouad in the comments, or
   • it’s waiting for a lock, or
   • it’s blocking inside an I/O call that never completes (or takes a long time to complete) etc.

Without knowing the typical value of other_variable and seeing the body of the loop it’s anyone’s guess.