Code Complete, 2nd Edition

Correspondence Between Loops and Arrays

Cross-Reference

For further discussion of the correspondence between loops and arrays, see Relationship Between Data Types and Control Structures.

Loops and arrays are often related. In many instances, a loop is created to perform an array manipulation, and loop counters correspond one-to-one with array indexes. For example, these Java for loop indexes correspond to the array indexes:

Example 16-34. Java Example of an Array Multiplication

for ( int row = 0; row < maxRows; row++ ) {
   for ( int column = 0; column < maxCols; column++ ) {
      product[ row ][ column ] = a[ row ][ column ] * b[ row ][ column ];
   }
}

In Java, a loop is necessary for this array operation. But it's worth noting that looping structures and arrays ...