C# Flow Control

Flow Control

Flow control in computer science refers to the management of the order in which a program's instructions are executed. It determines the flow of execution through a program by controlling the order in which statements or instructions are executed based on certain conditions or criteria. Flow control structures allow you to make decisions, repeat blocks of code, and create more flexible and dynamic programs.

• There are two main types of flow control:

Sequential Execution:

Sequential execution in programming involves the straightforward execution of statements in the order in which they appear in the code. Here's a simple example in C#:

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Sequential execution
        Console.WriteLine("Step 1: Initialize variables");
        
        int x = 5;
        int y = 10;

        // Perform some calculations
        Console.WriteLine("Step 2: Perform calculations");
        int result = x + y;

        // Display the result
        Console.WriteLine("Step 3: Display the result");
        Console.WriteLine("The result of the calculation is: " + result);
    }
}

Step 1: Initialize variables
Step 2: Perform calculations        
Step 3: Display the result
The result of the calculation is: 15

* In this example, the program executes the statements one after the other in a sequential manner.

Controlled Execution:

Controlled execution involves altering the flow of a program based on certain conditions. This is achieved through control statements such as:

⤏ Conditional Statements: These statements, like 'if', 'else', and 'switch' in many programming languages, allow you to execute different blocks of code based on certain conditions.

⤏ Loop Statements: Statements like 'for', 'while', and 'do-while' allow you to repeat a block of code multiple times as long as a specified condition is met.

⤏ Branching Statements: Statements like 'break' and 'continue' provide ways to change the normal flow of control. 'break' is used to exit a loop prematurely, and 'continue' is used to skip the rest of the loop's code and move to the next iteration.

Effective flow control is essential for writing efficient and organized programs, allowing developers to create logic that responds to different scenarios and conditions.