[Tutor] nested loops

[Steven D'Aprano]

Alan Gauld wrote:

> "Wayne Werner" <waynejwerner at gmail.com> wrote
> You probably want to add a sentinel to break out of the outer
> loops too:

I don't think you want to break out of *any* of the loops. Otherwise you 
will skip testing combinations. In your example, the first time you set 
highscore and alignment, you break out of all three loops and only test 
the first triple x,y,z.


  > found = False
>> highscore = 0
>> alignment = somealignment
>> for x in something and not found:
>>      for y in somethingelse and not found:
>>           for z in evenmoresomething:
>>               if x+y+z > highscore:
>>                   highscore = x+y+z
>>                   alignment = newalignment
>                     found = True
>                     break

That's the equivalent of a return in the innermost loop. If you're 
looking for the *first* matching highscore, that's fine, but not if you 
want the biggest.


-- 
Steven