While loops

While loops

While loops allow you to repeat a set of commands while the expression inside the brackets is $true.

while (expression) { commands }

The expression is evaluated in the same manner as If-Then-Else expressions are evaluted and it uses the same operators. If the expression is $true the commands inside the brackets are run while the expression remains $true.

You can break out of the while loop by issuing the break command, or jump to the start of the while loop by issuing the continue command.

Every time the while loop jumps back to the top, the expression is re-evaluated.

Note: If the expression evaluation changes to $false during the while loop you will not break out of the while loop until the while loop has reached the end of its contents.

Examples

Example shows how to get a list of users in the channel:

var %i = $nick(#,0)  ;Sets %i to the amount of users in the channel.
while (%i) {
  var %nick = $nick(#,%i) ;Find the nth user in the channel.
  var %people = $addtok(%people,%nick,44)  ;Add %nick to %people using $chr(44) (a comma) as the delimiter.
  dec %i
}
echo -ag Current channel users: %people

Example shows how to loop through all channels and echo the number of people in these channels.

var %i = 1
; loop from 1 to total number of channels
while (%i <= $chan(0)) {
 ; echo it
 echo -ag Channel: $chan(%i) Nicks: $nick($chan(%i),0)
 ; increase looping variable
 inc %i
}

Example shows how to loop though from 1 to 50:

var %from = 1
var %to = 50
while (%from <= %to) {
  echo -ag I know I can count to %from
  inc %from
} 

Example shows how to use the break command:

var %i = 1
while (%i) {
  echo -ag $chr(37) $+ i = %i
  if (%i == 10) { break }  ;If %i has a value of 10 then exit the while loop, missing out any commands still left to be executed inside the while loop.
  inc %i
}

Example shows how to use the continue command. It will echo everything from 1 to 10 except 5, as it jumps to the begin of the loop before coming to the echo command.

var %i = 0
while (%i < 10) {
 inc %i
 if (%i == 5) { continue }  ;If %i has a value of 5 then jump to the start of the while loop, missing out the echo below.
 echo -ag $chr(37) $+ i == %i
}

Example shows how to loop through a text file. Let's assume we have a "foo.txt" looking like

This is line1
This is line2
This is line3

To loop through it, you'd have to use:

var %i = 1
; $lines returns the total number of lines in a file
while (%i <= $lines(foo.txt)) {
 echo -a $read(foo.txt,%i)
 inc %i
}

See Also

• If-Then-Else