Relational Operators are Tricky

Here is the program fragment:

int count = 1;  
while ( count < 4 )  // there are changes here
{
  System.out.println( "count is:" + count );
  count = count + 1;   
}
System.out.println( "Done with the loop" );      

The relational operator is different from before (now it is <, previously it was <=) and it tests with 4 (previously with 3.) You can figure out what this loop does by observing

• count starts out at 1.
• The last value that will test true in the condition is 3.
• count increases by 1 each time.

so the values that are printed out must be: 1, 2, and 3.

The limit value of 4 is coordinated with the relational operator < to control the loop. Here is another change to the program:

int count = 0;  
int limit = 5;
while ( count <  limit )           // there are changes here
{
  System.out.println( "count is:" + count );
  count = count + 1;   
}
System.out.println( "Done with the loop" );