Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a repetition structure in an application?

Answer 1

Repepetition structures, or loops, are used when a program needs to repeatedly process one or more instructions until some condition is met, at which time the loop ends. Many programming tasks are repetitive, having little variation from one item to the next. The process of performing the same task over and over again is called iteration.

Advantages

• Complexity can be reduced using the concepts of divide and conquer.
• Logical structures ensure clear flow of control.
• Increase in productivity by allowing multiple programmers to work on different parts of the project independently at the same time.
• Modules can be re-used many times, thus it saves time, reduces complexity and increase reliability.
• Easier to update/fix the program by replacing individual modules rather than larger amount of code.
• Ability to either eliminate or at least reduce the necessity of employing GOTO statement.

Disadvantages

• Since Goto statement is not used, the structure of the program needs to be planned meticulously.
• Lack of Encapsulation.
• Same code repetition
• Lack of information hiding
• Change of even a single data structure in a program necessitates changes at many places throughout it, and hence the changes becomes very difficult to track even in a reasonable sized program.
• Not much reusability of code.
• Can support the software development projects easily up to a certain level of complexity. If complexity of the project goes beyond a limit, it becomes difficult to manage.