DAY10
Monday, 04 June 2012

Today we will:

• look again at the scanf() function for getting input from the user;
• look again at how a pair of for loops can be nested, and why you want to do that;
• say a little more about the rules of for loops, another way to think about them, and also how they can have "local" memory;
• introduce the while and do loops, which repeat some statements until a condition is met;
• look at the break and continue statements for changing the way a loop is carried out (the book warns you not to use these. I disagree!);

Programs and functions we might talk about:

• after_loop.c, a program which asks, what is the value of the loop index after the loop is done?
• bran.c, a function which returns a random boolean value, either true or false;
• dot_product.c, a program which shows how a for loop can be used to compute the dot product of two vectors (although we don't know what vectors are yet!). This program needs to be run with dran01.
• dran01.c, a function which returns a random double between 0 and 1.
• f10.c, a function to use with find_min.
• factors.c, a program which uses nested for loops to compute and display the factors of each number from 2 to n.
• find_min.c, a program which uses a loop to sample a function, looking for its minimum value.
• head_count.c, a program which simulates flipping a (fair) coin n times, and counts the heads.
• matrix_multiply.c, a program which uses double for loops to multiply a matrix times a vector.
• scanf_demo.c, a program which demonstrates how the scanf(format,address) function can be used to read data from the user.
• scientific.c, a program which uses while loops to rewrite a large or small real number in scientific notation.
• vegas.c, a program which lets you specify how much money you start with, and then lets you bet repeatedly on a flip of a coin. The program illustrates the while and do/while statements as it checks that you still have money to play with, and that you didn't bet more than you have. This program needs to be run with bran.