Overview of Control Structures

Control structures are programming constructs that allow you to control the flow of execution in your Carbon code. They enable you to make decisions, repeat code blocks, and jump to specific parts of your program.

Conditional Statements

Conditional statements are used to execute different code blocks based on certain conditions. Carbon supports the following conditional statements:

• if Statement: Executes a block of code if a condition is true.
• else Statement: Executes a block of code if the condition in the if statement is false.
• else if Statement: Provides additional conditions to check if the previous if or else if conditions are false.

Example:

Code snippet

var age: int = 25;

if age >= 18 {
  print("You are an adult.");
} else {
  print("You are a minor.");
}

Looping Constructs

Looping constructs allow you to repeat code blocks multiple times. Carbon provides the following looping constructs:

• for Loop: Executes a block of code a specified number of times.
• while Loop: Executes a block of code as long as a condition is true.
• do-while Loop: Executes a block of code at least once, then repeats as long as a condition is true.  

Example:

Code snippet

for i in 0...5 {
  print(i);
}

var count: int = 0;
while count < 10 {
  print(count);
  count += 1;
}

Switch Statement

The switch statement is used to select one of several code blocks to execute based on the value of an expression.

Example:

Code snippet

var day: string = "Monday";

switch day {
case "Monday":
  print("It's Monday!")
case "Tuesday":
  print("It's Tuesday!")
default:
  print("It's another day!")
}

Break and Continue Statements

The break statement is used to exit a loop or a switch statement. The continue statement is used to skip the current iteration of a loop and proceed to the next iteration.

Control structures are essential for writing efficient and flexible Carbon programs. By understanding and using them effectively, you can create more complex and powerful applications.