What is the difference between a for loop and a while loop?

The distinction between a for loop and a while loop lies primarily in their structure and the way they perform iterations. A for loop is designed to iterate over a predefined sequence, such as a list, tuple, string, or any other iterable. This means that the for loop knows exactly how many iterations it will execute based on the length of the sequence it's looping through. In contrast, a while loop continues to execute as long as a specified condition evaluates to true. This means that the number of iterations in a while loop is not predetermined and can vary depending on the condition being checked.

For example, in a for loop, you might see something like:

for i in range(5):

print(i)

This loop will print numbers 0 through 4 exactly five times. Conversely, a while loop would look something like this:

count = 0

while count < 5:

print(count)

count += 1

This while loop functions similarly but requires careful management of the counting variable to ensure that the condition eventually becomes false, preventing infinite looping.

Understanding this difference helps programmers choose the appropriate loop type based on the situation and data they are working with, which is crucial for writing efficient