Loops

        FOR Variable List

opens a FOR-NEXT loop to be executed for values given in the list.

This command may have the following format :

        FOR I n1 n2 n3 to n4 by n5 n6 to n7

where I is the loop variable name. Loop variables must not be previously defined, and are undefined when the loop execution is finished. The prompt changes to 'SIC_n: ', where n is the current SIC execution level, and all subsequent commands until NEXT are the body of the loop. The loop variable can be used as any other SIC variable, e.g. in arithmetic expressions such as EXP(-(I+3.5)**2). In addition, it can be used in a formatted way when it is included between quotes, e.g. in NAME.EXT;'I'. In this case, the substitution occurs also within the character strings (see ``Implicit Formatting''). The commands are echoed to the user's terminal if the VERIFY switch is set ON.

Up to 9 loop levels can be nested, and there is no restriction upon the loop and procedure nesting, e.g.

          SIC> FOR I List1
          SIC> FOR J List2
          SIC> ..
          SIC> NEXT
          SIC> FOR J List3
          SIC> ...
          SIC> NEXT
          SIC> NEXT

is perfectly valid.

        FOR /WHILE Logical_Expression

This is another possible syntax for FOR-NEXT loops. The loop is executed conditionally provided ``Logical_Expression'' is TRUE. ``Logical_Expression'' must be any valid logical expression, possibly including arithmetic sub-expressions in it.