“Countdown” (using “while” conditions

Question

//Code a timer that counts down to zero.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int seconds;
cin>>seconds;

//your code goes here
while (seconds>=0);
cout <<seconds <<seconds--;

return 0;
}

//Why am I not getting this???

Answer 1

You are printing every second twice

Answer 2

🎞Tahiti🍷

Semicolon (;) used to break statement so if you use after while condition then inside statement will not execute.

Answer 3

if 'seconds' was assigned with 5 for example, your code output 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 (post decrement: after variable)

if you've instead put decrement operator (double dash) before variable, your output would have been 4 to 0 ;)

Answer 4

firstly, don't put semi-colon (;) just after while condition: this will result to an infinite loop...
output (cout) only seconds once and I think you must also output each number on a new line:

while (seconds > 0)
cout << seconds-- << endl;

... as you post decrement, you could do it "onelined", however, if you need more than one statement (many instruction semi-colon separated) you need to put a curly braces block (else block stop at first semi-colon) :P

edit: if you need countdown to zero, change the condition to 'seconds >= 0'

Answer 5

Angelo , I Am AJ ! , visph
Thank you 🙏🏽
You have no idea how helpful this has been. Such small changes/errors make such a big difference.

I’m still a little confused on when to decrement with - - in front
(- - seconds) vs in back
(seconds- -). What would have happened if I has placed the decrement symbol after the variable? Thanks again.