Arizona State University (ASU) CSE240 Introduction to Programming Languages Midterm Practice Exam

A while loop is a fundamental control structure found in many programming languages, and its primary function is to continue executing a block of code as long as a specified condition evaluates to true. This means that as long as the condition you provide remains true, the loop will repeat its execution, allowing for dynamic control based on the state of variables or other logical conditions.

For instance, if the condition is based on a counter that increments with each iteration, the loop can effectively manage repeated actions until the counter reaches a certain threshold, at which point the condition becomes false, and the loop stops. This behavior is distinct from other looping constructs where the number of iterations is pre-defined, allowing the while loop to be used for scenarios where the exact number of iterations is not known beforehand.

The other options describe different behaviors that do not accurately reflect the functionality of a while loop. For example, the notion of running a specific number of times before stopping aligns more with a for loop, while stopping execution when a condition becomes true suggests a different logic that doesn't represent the continuous nature of a while loop. Additionally, catching exceptions pertains to error handling practices in programming, which is separate from the looping mechanism.