< programming > A sequence of instructions that the processor repeats, either until some condition is met, or indefinitely.
In an structured language (e.g. C , Pascal , BASIC , or Fortran ), a loop is usually achieved with for loop , while loop or repeat loop constructs.
In other languages these constructs may be synthesised with a jump ( assembly language ) or a GOTO (early Fortran or BASIC).
(1999-05-06)