# For Loop with Step

In the "Repetitions (Loops)" chapter, we learned how the for loop works and we already know when and for what purpose to use it. In this chapter we will pay attention to a definite and very important part of its construction, namely the step.

## Loop Step Explanation

The step is that part of the for loop construct that tells how much to increase or decrease the value of its leading variable. It is declared the last in the skeleton of the for loop.

Most often, we have a size of 1, and in this case, instead of writing i += 1 or i -= 1, we can use the i++ or i-- operators. If we want our step to be different than 1, when increasing, we use the i += + step size, and when decreasing, the i -= + step size. With step 10, the loop would look like this:

Here is a series of sample problems, the solution of which will help us better understand the use of the step in for loop.

## Example: Numbers 1...N with Step 3

Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to n with step 3. For example, if n = 100, the result will be: 1, 4, 7, 10, …, 94, 97, 100.

We can solve the problem through the following sequence of actions (algorithm):

• We read the number n from the console input.
• We run a for loop from 1 to n with step size 3.
• In the body of the loop, we print the value of the current step.

## Example: Numbers N...1

Write a program that prints the numbers from n to 1 in reverse order (step -1). For example, if n = 100, the result will be: 100, 99, 98, …, 3, 2, 1.

We can solve the problem in the following way:

• We read the number n from the console input.
• We create a for loop by assigning int i = n.
• We reverse the condition of the loop: i >= 1.
• We define the size of the step: -1.
• In the body of the loop, we print the value of the current step.

## Example: Powers of 2

In the following example, we'll look at using the usual step with size of 1, combined with a calculation at each loop iteration.

Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 2^n (two in power of n). For example, if n = 10, the result will be: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024.

## Example: Even Powers of 2

Print the even powers of 2 to 2^n: 2^0, 2^2, 2^4, 2^8, …, 2^n. For example, if n = 10, the result will be: 1, 4, 16, 64, 256, 1024.

Here is how we can solve the problem:

• We create a num variable for the current number to which we assign an initial value of 1.
• For a step of the loop, we set a value of 2.
• In the body of the loop: we print the value of the current number and increase the current number num 4 times (according to the problem's description).