Control Statements in C

By | October 11, 2023

Control statements in C are used to control the flow of program execution based on certain conditions. There are three main types of control statements in C: conditional statements, loop statements, and jump statements.

1. Conditional Statements:
Conditional statements allow a program to make decisions based on whether a certain condition is true or false. The most common conditional statement in C is the “if” statement, which is used to execute a block of code if a certain condition is true. The basic syntax of the if statement is:

if (condition) {
  // Code to execute if condition is true
}

The “if” statement can also be combined with an “else” statement to execute a different block of code if the condition is false:

if (condition) {
  // Code to execute if condition is true
} else {
  // Code to execute if condition is false
}

The “else if” statement can also be used to check multiple conditions:

if (condition1) {
  // Code to execute if condition1 is true
} else if (condition2) {
  // Code to execute if condition2 is true
} else {
  // Code to execute if both condition1 and condition2 are false
}

2. Loop Statements:
Loop statements are used to execute a block of code repeatedly based on a certain condition. The two most common loop statements in C are the “while” loop and the “for” loop.
The “while” loop executes a block of code as long as a certain condition is true:

while (condition) {
  // Code to execute while condition is true
}

The “for” loop is used to execute a block of code a certain number of times:

for (initialization; condition; increment) {
  // Code to execute while condition is true
}

The “initialization” statement is executed only once at the beginning of the loop, the “condition” is checked before each iteration of the loop, and the “increment” statement is executed at the end of each iteration.

3. Jump Statements:
Jump statements are used to transfer control to a different part of the program. The three main jump statements in C are “break”, “continue”, and “goto”.

The “break” statement is used to exit a loop:

while (condition) {
  // Code to execute while condition is true
  if (break_condition) {
    break; // Exit the loop
  }
}

The “continue” statement is used to skip to the next iteration of a loop:

while (condition) {
  if (skip_condition) {
    continue; // Skip to the next iteration of the loop
  }
  // Code to execute if skip_condition is false
}

The “goto” statement is used to transfer control to a different part of the program. It is generally considered bad practice to use “goto”, as it can make code difficult to understand and maintain:

if (condition) {
  goto label;
}
// Code to execute if condition is false
label:
// Code to execute after the goto statement

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Author: Mithlesh Upadhyay

I hold an M.Tech degree in Artificial Intelligence (2023) from Delhi Technological University (DTU) and possess over 4 years of experience. I worked at GeeksforGeeks, leading teams and managing content, including GATE CS, Test Series, Placements, C, and C++. I've also contributed technical content to companies like MarsDev, Tutorialspoint, StudyTonight, TutorialCup, and Guru99. My skill set includes coding, Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA), and Object-Oriented Programming (OOPs). I'm proficient in C++, Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, React.js, Node.js, MongoDB, Django, and Data Science.