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Language: Visual Basic
Expertise: Intermediate

Apr 6, 2000

The value of a loop counter variable is incremented one beyond the set range when the loop is completed. For example, if you use a For i = 0 to 5...Next loop, i equals 6 when all loop iterations have been completed. If you use the For...Next statement with an Exit For statement, you can use the value of the loop counter variable to determine whether a condition was met during the loop. Here's one possible application of this technique, which can be applied when you have an array of values, each element of which has a unique value:

 
Dim sText(10) As String
	Dim i As Long
	' Initialize strings - A, B, C, D, ...
	For i = 1 To 10
		sText(i) = Chr$(Asc("A") + i)
	Next i

Suppose you want to find which element, if any, has a given value. You could use a Do...Until Loop and a flag:

 
Dim i As Long 
	Dim IsFound As Boolean
	i = 0
	Do While Not IsFound
		i = i + 1
		If i > 10 Then Exit Do
		If sText(i) = "J" Then IsFound = True
	Loop
	If IsFound Then
		MsgBox "Found J as element: " & i
	Else
		MsgBox "Could not find J"
	End If

Or you can use a For...Next loop without a flag:

 
Dim i As Long
	For i = 1 To 10
		If sText(i) = "J" Then Exit For
	Next i
	If i <= 10 Then
		MsgBox "Found J at element: " & i
	Else
		MsgBox "Could not find J"
	End If

This search routine is shorter and faster in the second case.