"While(true)"? Why does this work?

A 'while' loop that begins while (true) creates a loop that will continuously run until a break condition. Something like:

while(true)
{
    x++ //do something
    if(x > 100) //until a condition is met
    {
        break; //exit the loop
    }
}

After researching this for awhile it seems like there is a general feeling that while(true) shouldn't be used, but that might be outside the scope of your question.

It might be easier to understand if you think of the parenthetical 'true' as a conditional statement. So:

while(x < y) { x++ }

or in English: while (it's true that) x is less than y, add 1 to x

The 'while' loop tests whether the condition is true and executes the code inside the curlybraces until the condition is false.

The 'while' loop tests whether the condition is true and executes the code inside the curlybraces until the condition is false.

Okay, that hits the heart of my question.

In your example, I see that loop is testing a finite thing, the value of the variable x. When simply while(true) is used, what is being tested? The return value of the loop?

Thanks!

Thank you! Got it. So while(true) doesn't really test anything. It's an infinite loop that will never return false and has to be ended by a break statement!

Got it!

It doesn't test a return value. It's always "true" no matter what.