How to emulate a do-while loop in Python

At times, we encounter situations that require us to use the do-while loop in Python. A do-while loop is important because it is a post-test loop, meaning that it checks the condition only after executing the code in the loop block.

Even though Python doesn’t explicitly have the do-while loop, we can emulate it.

General syntax

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Emulating a do-while loop in Python

There are two scenarios in which a loop terminates:

  • The loop condition is no longer true/false (depending on the type of loop).
  • A break statement is executed from within the code in the loop body.

If the condition is to be checked after executing the loop block, we can bring the condition inside the loop block, set the loop condition to be always true, and break the loop once the condition is met inside ​the code block.

Have a look at the code,for printing the first 3 integers,below:

i = 1
while True:
print(i)
i = i + 1
if(i > 3):
break

The do-while loop in C++ and the emulation of the same loop in Python result in the same output. In the Python emulation, i is being printed before the condition is checked, just ​like in the do-while loop in C++.

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