Step 9: Repeating Instructions¶

Tutorial¶

Often, we will find that we want to repeat a series of instructions a fixed number of times. For example, in Step 8, you had to tell Reeborg to do the same thing over and over again. There is a way in Python to do this … but it has too many new concepts to explain right now. I will just show you the code, and immediately introduce repeat, a simpler replacement for it, unique to Reeborg’s World. The standard way is known as a for loop (which we will use later in the course) and is written as follows:

for i in range(n):
# some
# instructions
# here


In Reeborg’s World, we can write a repeat loop as follows:

repeat n:    # where n is a natural number, like 3 or 7
# some
# instructions
# here


Note

Using repeat will not work in Python programs meant to be run outside of Reeborg’s World.

A loop is a block of instructions that is repeated. Each time the loop is repeated is called an iteration, so the code below would have 4 iterations.

The following code will make Reeborg trace a square:

repeat 4:
move()
turn_left()


By using repeat, we can rewrite some function definitions without having to repeat instructions:

def turn_right():
repeat 3:
turn_left()


You might want to adjust the code that you have saved in the library tab to use the repeat block.

For educators

The rationale for having repeat as an addition to Python’s standard notation is to avoid having to introduce 4 concepts at the same time (loops, variables as in _ in for _ in range(n), builtin functions like range as well as the concept of function arguments).

By design the n in repeat n must be an integer literal; it cannot be a variable. When students learn about variables, they should learn the proper Python syntax to do loops and forget about the non-standard repeat.

Next Section - First Practice Quiz - repeat, if, def