Is there ever a need for a “do {…} while ( )” loop?

Question

Bjarne Stroustrup (C++ creator) once said that he avoids \"do/while\" loops, and prefers to write the code in terms of a \"while\" loop instead. [See quote below.]

S

Answer 1

Well maybe this goes back a few steps, but in the case of

do
{
     output("enter a number");
     int x = getInput();

     //do stuff with input
}while(x != 0);

It would be possible, though not necessarily readable to use

int x;
while(x = getInput())
{
    //do stuff with input
}

Now if you wanted to use a number other than 0 to quit the loop

while((x = getInput()) != 4)
{
    //do stuff with input
}

But again, there is a loss in readability, not to mention it's considered bad practice to utilize an assignment statement inside a conditional, I just wanted to point out that there are more compact ways of doing it than assigning a "reserved" value to indicate to the loop that it is the initial run through.