Resolve the usage of Continue external loops in internal loops

  • 2020-05-10 18:42:42
  • OfStack

Sometimes you want to perform Continue operations in an outer loop of a nested loop. For example, suppose you have a bunch of standards, and a bunch of items.

And you want to find an item that meets each criterion.


match = null;
foreach(var item in items)
{
  foreach(var criterion in criteria)
  {
    if (!criterion.IsMetBy(item)) // If it doesn't meet the standard 
    {
        // So that means that item It's definitely not looking, so it should be done in an outer loop continue operation 
    }
  }
  match = item;
  break;
}

There are many ways to implement this requirement. Here are a few:

Method #1(ugly goto) : use the goto statement.


match = null;
foreach(var item in items)
{
  foreach(var criterion in criteria)
  {
    if (!criterion.IsMetBy(item))
    {
      goto OUTERCONTINUE;
    }
  }
  match = item;
  break;
OUTERCONTINUE:

}

If one of these criteria is not met, then goto OUTCONTINUE:, and then check 1 item.

Method #2(elegant, beautiful) :

When you see a nested loop, you can almost always consider putting the inner loop into one of its own methods:


match = null;
foreach(var item in items)
{
  if (MeetsAllCriteria(item, critiera))
  {
    match = item;
    break;
  }
}

The inside of the MeetsAllCriteria method should obviously be

foreach(var criterion in criteria)
  if (!criterion.IsMetBy(item))
    return false;
return true;

Method #3, using the flag bit:

match = null;
foreach(var item in items)
{
 foreach(var criterion in criteria)
 {
   HasMatch=true;
   if (!criterion.IsMetBy(item))
   {
     // No point in checking anything further; this is not
     // a match. We want to  " continue "  the outer loop. How?
    HasMatch=false;
    break;
   }
 }
 if(HasMatch) {
    match = item;
    break;
 }
}

Method #4, using Linq.

var matches = from item in items 
              where criteria.All(
                criterion=>criterion.IsMetBy(item)) 
              select item;
match = matches.FirstOrDefault();

For each item in items, check that all criteria are met.


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