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JavaScript

Posted by Alex Watts
Alex Watts
8,396 Points

Why does this loop give me the value of 2?

Hello,

I have recently been looking at loops; why does the following give me the answer of two. I am a little confused.

var x = 45; 

while (x > 2) {
 x--;
} 

alert(x);

This might be a dumb question, but thanks for your help!

2 Answers

nico dev
nico dev
20,364 Points

Hi Alex Watts,

It is a completely valid question! The thing is you call the alert function after the while loop.

So, the code will only do the while loop (that is, decrease x by a value of 1) without continuing with the rest of the code (that is, with the alert function) until the condition in the while becomes false (that is, until x is no longer higher than 2, or in other words, x = 2). By then only, it will call the alert function and give you the value of x.

Try calling the alert function inside the loop (with a document.write / console.log or alike function). It should do what you are expecting to.

Alex Watts
Alex Watts
8,396 Points

Thanks Nico, this really helped me! As you said I added the alert to the loop and I got the result I was expecting to see :)

nico dev
nico dev
20,364 Points
nico dev
nico dev
20,364 Points

Great! Glad that helped. :)

Keep it up!