easy question about while loop

[popeyito18]

I'm writing my first program eve. I'm using a while loop with three more while within.
In the first while statement the following code. The code asks for a name, address & email; however, I don't how to make it stop& return to the main loop when I enter the data.
thanks in advance

while (true) 
      {    
        while (option1 ==1) 
         {
    cname = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "What is the customer's name?"); 

    PrintWriter outputFile = new PrintWriter("customerInfo.txt"); 
    outputFile.println(cname);
    caddress = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "What is the custormer's address?");  

    outputFile.println(caddress);
    cemail = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "What is the customer's e-mail address?");
    outputFile.println(cemail); 
    outputFile.close(); 
    break;
          }

[sunde887]

Use break to break out of the inner loop.

Also, it seems like an if or switch would work better than a loop if you only plan on collecting information once. You should also wrap a file output stream with the print writer.

[popeyito18]

I'm don't know how to do the break that you're talking about.

I did the if statement and it does stop after I enter the data but it does not return to the main while loop.

[sunde887]

If you have two loops, an outer and an inner, break inside the inner will move to the outer loop.

public class X{
  public static void main(String[] args){
    while(true){
      System.out.println("Hello");
      while(true){
        System.out.println("In inner loop");
        break;
      }
      System.out.println("Outer loop");
    }
  }
}

Here is a working snippet so you can kind of see how it should work.

[popeyito18]

I have several loops.. I'm debating where to put the break

import java.util.Scanner; //Needed for Scanner class
import java.io.*;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane; //Needed for JOptionPane 

 public class Proyecto //
 {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException //exception thrown: Neccessary 
  {
 String cname, caddress, cemail, name2; //variables that will only contain textual values
 int option1, menu2; //all variables that will contain numerical values
  
 Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
 System.out.println("Welcome to THE STORE");
 System.out.println("Please Select One of Following");
 System.out.println(" 1. Enter customer information \n 2. Price Lookup \n 3. Display Total Bill \n 4. Quit");
 option1 = keyboard.nextInt();
 {
    while (true) 
      {    
        while (option1 ==1) //using the if statement to pick one of the choices. In this case, option 1
         {// getting all the customer information
    cname = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "What is the customer's name?"); //asking for customer's name
    PrintWriter outputFile = new PrintWriter("customerInfo.txt"); //creating new text file
    outputFile.println(cname); //writing name to the files
    caddress = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "What is the custormer's address?"); //asking for custormer's address
    outputFile.println(caddress); //exporting address to the text file 
    cemail = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "What is the customer's e-mail address?");
    outputFile.println(cemail); //exporting email to file
    outputFile.close(); //closing the text file
   
         
        
       
       while (option1 ==2)
         {Scanner keyboard2 = new Scanner(System.in); //user input
          System.out.println("Choose one of the following products");
          System.out.println(" 1. Shoes \n 2. T-shirts \n 3. Shorts \n 4. Caps \n 5. Jackets"); //offering customer the available options
          menu2 = keyboard.nextInt(); //obtaining customer's option
         
          if (menu2 == 1)
          System.out.println("The price for Shoes is $50.00"); //displaying results for option 1
          if (menu2 == 2)
          System.out.println("The price for T-Shirts is $30.00"); //displaying results for option 2
          if (menu2 == 3)
          System.out.println("The price for Shorts is $75.00"); //displaying results for option 3
          if (menu2 == 4)
          System.out.println("The price for Caps is $15.00"); //displaying results for option 4
          if (menu2 == 5)
          System.out.println("The price for Jackets is $100.00"); //displaying results for option 5
          
       
          
         
          while (option1 ==3)
           {Scanner keyboard3 = new Scanner(System.in); //creating scanner for input
           System.out.println("Enter the customer's name"); //asking for a name
           name2 = keyboard.nextLine(); //creating variable name2 with the new name
           
           
          
           
          
          
  
         while (option1==4)
           {System.exit(0);}
            
  }
 }
 break; }
 }
 }
  }
 }

[sunde887]

Your code isn't really formatted well, you may want to look into that. However, there seems to be a bit too many loops. If the option doesn't do something you want to repeat you should not be using a loop. You generally use while loops when you want to do something x times, where x is unknown. For loops are similar, except for x is (generally) known.

You should get into the habit of wrapping ifs in {} so you don't mess up and indenting everything the same.

while(true){
  if(condition){
    do stuff
  }
  if(condition){ 
    do stuff
  }
  while(true){
    do inner loop
  }
}

Notice how my indenting makes everything easier to read? Also, you want to be over cautious with the ifs or else you may end up getting errors by doing

if(condition)
  statement 1
  statement 2

instead of

if(condition){
  statement 1
  statement 2
}

Also, don't do

while(true)
  {statement}

It's just sloppy looking.

You want to put the loop in the loop you want to break out of. For option one I don't believe you should be using a loop since you are only performing the task once, however;

while(true){
  while(option 1){
    do stuff
    break
  }
}