while

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Description

Description:

Repeats Code while the given condition is true. A part of while-do construct.

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A while loop does not have any suspension, meaning that if used in scheduled environment without any suspension (sleep or uiSleep) the code will run multiple times per frame and consumes the 3 ms per frame scheduler execution limit. This should be avoided if not intended (see Example 3).

Groups:

Program Flow

Syntax

Syntax:

while condition

Parameters:

condition: Code

Return Value:

While Type

Examples

Example 1:

while { a < b } do { a = a + 1 };

Example 2:

A practical example: Repair all members of a group to such a level that they are able to stand up:

{ if (alive _x) then { while { not canStand _x } do { _x setDamage (damage _x - 0.01); }; }; } forEach units group unitname;

Example 3:

[] spawn { // warning: while loop without suspension executes multiple times per frame private _counter = 0; private _endTime = diag_tickTime + 5; private _frameNo = diag_frameNo; while { diag_tickTime < _endTime } do { _counter = _counter + 1; }; // in an empty mission, the _counter may go well over 2000 times per frame! hint format ["Average Execution: %1 times per frame", _counter / (diag_frameNo - _frameNo)]; // with suspension private _counter = 0; private _endTime = diag_tickTime + 5; private _frameNo = diag_frameNo; while { diag_tickTime < _endTime } do { _counter = _counter + 1; uiSleep 0.001; // waits at least 1 frame }; // _counter prints one per frame, as expected hint format ["Average Execution: %1 times per frame", _counter / (diag_frameNo - _frameNo)]; };

Additional Information

See also:

Control Structures waitUntil for do

Notes

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Only post proven facts here! Add Note

Kronzky - c

Posted on May 14, 2008 - 08:40 (UTC)

The boolean code that is used to evaluate the while condition can be preceded by code that executes a regular command. while {_a =_a + 1; _a < 10} do {...}

Killzone Kid - c

Posted on Aug 30, 2014 - 08:12 (UTC)

In non-scheduled environment, while do loop is limited to 10,000 iterations, after which it exits even if condition is still true. In scheduled environment no such limit exists.