Can you have a while loop (or something similar) that can be satisfied if either of two conditions are met? [closed]

Question

Let's say I have a game that ends where the user guesses what number was picked by a random number generator. They have a maximum of ten guesses and if they get 4 right the game ends.

If I declare a variable called winCounter and a variable called guessCounter can I make a while loop that continues while winCounter != 4 or guessCounter != 10?

Answer 1

The AND (&&) operator returns true if both of its arguments are true. Otherwise it returns false.

The OR (||) operator returns true if either of its arguments are true, otherwise false.

You want the loop to continue until either of the following conditions occurs:

• winCounter >= 4 --- if they get 4 (or more) right, the game ends
• guessCounter >= 10 --- if they guessed ten (or more) times, the game ends

Or, to put it another way, you want the loop to continue looping while both of these conditions remain true:

• winCounter < 4
• guessCounter < 10

We'll go with the latter since it's a simpler loop condition.

If either of these conditions is false, you want the loop to stop; you want the loop to continue only while both the conditions are true.

We can use the AND (&&) operator to tell us when either of the conditions stops being true -- because the && will only return true if both of its arguments are true.

So, if we AND together winCounter < 4 and guessCounter < 10 then when either stops being true the && will stop being true and that means we should exit the loop.

while ( (winCounter < 4) && (guessCounter < 10) )
{
    ...
}