Infinite Loop

An infinite loop is an iteration that never ends. It may seem like a bad idea to have an infinite loop; however, there are scenarios that may require an infinite loop.

The most common scenario is when a program needs to be on always.

    # Infinite While Loop on Python Example Format

    while True:

        Your Code Here

    # end of while

In the code above, since the while loop’s condition cannot ever be False, the code block inside the loop will continue to run unless there is forceful intervention: Force Quit.

break keyword

WARNING: It is not recommended for beginner programmers to rely upon infinite while loops and the break keyword.

It is better to write sound conditions on while loops to write loops that terminate on their own.

break is a built-in keyword in Python that allows us to exit an iteration when needed.

It is often used within a conditional statement such that we exit the loop prematurely when a condition is met.

    while True:

        Some Code

        if _boolean_condition_:
            break

    # end of while

Code Example

# Example 1: Using Break

num = 10

while True:
    print(num)
    num -= 1

    if num == 4:
        break
# end of while loop

Second Tab

10
9
8
7
6
5

This code is an infinite loop; however, we wrote a conditional check inside the loop that allow us to exit the loop if the condition is True num == 4.

continue keyword

The continue keyword is very similar to break.

However, continue allows us to end the code block prematurely, but go back to the top of the iteration to go to the next iteration.

Code Example

# Example 2: Using Continue

num = 10

while True:
    num -= 1

    if num == 4:
        continue # once this code is executed, it ignores all the code below in the code block.

    print(num)

    if num == 1:
        break
# end of while

Output

9
8
7
6
5
3
2
1

• Notice that the number 4 does not get outputted.

Real World Application of an Infinite Loop: Game Loop

“The game loop is the overall flow control for the entire game program.

It’s a loop because the game keeps doing a series of actions over and over again until the user quits. Each iteration of the game loop is known as a frame. Most real-time games update several times per second: 30 and 60 are the two most common intervals.

If a game runs at 60 FPS (frames per second), this means that the game loop completes 60 iterations every second.

There can be many variations of the game loop, depending on a number of factors, most notably the target hardware. Let’s first discuss the traditional game loop before exploring a more advanced formulation that’s designed for more modern hardware”