A computer program can be thought of as a sequence of instructions which are followed by a computer to solve a problem. However, the sequence in which they are written and the sequence in which they are executed may not be the same. If the execution of every program was sequential, it would run exactly the same way each time. Hence, to write programs of greater complexity, which can take decisions based on user input or values of variables, we need a decision making mechanism which can alter the sequential order of execution of statements. The order of execution of statements in a program is called Control Flow (or flow of control).

An example where we need to alter the sequential flow of control is when we want a set of instructions to be executed in one situation, and an entirely different set of instructions in another situation. A real life example of this sort of "decision-making" could be: "If the traffic light is green, keep moving;if yellow, then wait; if red, then stop". In the case of programmming, "decision-making" essentially means deciding from which statement the execution should be resumed. This decision about where the execution should be resumed is made based on the value of a variable or an expression. The if construct excecutes a set of instructions only if a condition is true. A switching construct allows decision-making based on the state of a variable or an expression. Its purpose is to allow the value of a variable or an expression to control the flow of program execution via a multiway branch.Constructs like these can be placed inside another to create more complex flow of control. This enclosing of structures into one another is called nesting. These constructs are known as conditionals because they alter the flow of control based on a condition.

Apart from this, there is another class of constructs called loops, which can be used to repeat a set of instructions. This repetition can be done a fixed number of times or until some specific condition is met. Just like the conditionals, the loops can also be nested. Loops and conditionals can also be nested inside each other.

In this lab, we shall see the working of looping constructs.