How to limit the number of for Loops while executing while loops?

Hi wonderful MatLab community,

I have set up a for-loop with another for-loop within a while-loop so that it would run the function 'for i = 0 : Time_steps' for 3 times.

The coding I have so far:

 for   number_of_repeats = 1 : 3 %to repeat it 3 times

 while number_of_repeats <= 3

    for i = 0 : Time_steps %during each of the 3 times 
    statement to perform stuff for i= 0: Time Steps
    end
 end

 end

However when when I run this code, the program runs non-stop and has a continuous cycle where n = 1,2,3,1,2,3...etc. How can I make it run only 3 times?

Thank you so much guys!

Answer 1

[James Tursa]

In your while loop:

 while number_of_repeats <= 3

The condition "number_of_repeats <= 3" is always true because the for-loop that it is contained in defines number_of_repeats as 1 to begin with. Hence the infinite loop.

If you only want the whole thing to run 3 times, then just get rid of the while loop entirely. E.g.,

for   number_of_repeats = 1 : 3 %to repeat it 3 times
    for i = 0 : Time_steps %during each of the 3 times 
        statement to perform stuff for i= 0: Time Steps
    end
end

[Wilson Weng]

Hi James,

Thank you for the reply. However when I run the code without the while-loop for some reason the software would still slightly go over after the 3rd run by a few seconds (time steps). Is it possible to write the coding such that

 'for i = 0: Time_steps' where on the third repeat to have a shorter time step?

e.g. on the third repeat only

 i = 0 : Time_steps-50 %(seconds)

Thanks once again :)

[James Tursa]

Several ways one might do that. Here is a straightforward way that is easy to read and understand:

for   number_of_repeats = 1 : 3 %to repeat it 3 times
    if( number_of_repeats == 3 )
        tdelta = 50;
    else
        tdelta = 0;
    end
    for i = 0 : Time_steps-tdelta %during each of the 3 times 
        statement to perform stuff for i= 0: Time Steps
    end
end