Test your Knowledge of Arduino Fundamentals: Part I: Quiz

Hmmm, not so sure about question 13 as you can create code such that either can apply "Place code in _____ to make an LED flash 10 times."

Placing the flashing code in setup() requires a loop (or a repetition of code).

Contrasting to that, placing the code in loop() requires some code to stop the flashing once 10 cycles have passed.

So flashing in setup() might be somewhat easier 

du00000001 Duh this is the way it should have been done NEVER put executable code in setup!! setup() is akin to c.h file

what I show below  is that I used a variable 'setflash' and I set it to 0

then in loop() I test 'setflash' to make sure it's still 0

if its still 0 then I call my function flash() and then bump setflash to 1

In this way, no-mater how many time loop() runs for flash will only be called the first time around! and never again.

void setup() {

int setflash = 0;}

void loop {

if (setflash == 0) {

       flash();

       setflash =1; }

else { other stuff }}

void flash( )

// the code

}

du00000001 Duh this is the way it should have been done NEVER put executable code in setup!! setup() is akin to c.h file

what I show below  is that I used a variable 'setflash' and I set it to 0

then in loop() I test 'setflash' to make sure it's still 0

if its still 0 then I call my function flash() and then bump setflash to 1

In this way, no-mater how many time loop() runs for flash will only be called the first time around! and never again.

void setup() {

int setflash = 0;}

void loop {

if (setflash == 0) {

       flash();

       setflash =1; }

else { other stuff }}

void flash( )

// the code

}

Christina, I think that’s a personal style. Not a common one. (edit: and loop() would have no access to setflash because it’s in local scope of setup(). )

Most people put variables outside the setup and loop, initialise them, and set up initial state in setup,

And then the lifecycle code in the loop.

Christina, as Jan already commented: your code won't work because setflash would be local to setup().

setup()   basically equals the initialization that's (maybe called as an initialization block) at the beginning of the "normal" main().

loop()     equates the FOREVER loop in a standard main().

I resently gauged a pit specific to the Arduino sketches, erroneously putting some variable declarations/initializations into the loop() function:

while this is considered reasonable style in standard C programming (putting these into main() ), in sketches the initialization is repeated every time loop() is executed. Not exactly what I wanted to have 

So be advised: loop() is not main() - it's only the endless loop in main().