java - when to use while loop rather than for loop

Question

I am learning java as well android. Almost everything that we can perform by while loop those things we can do in for loop.

I found a simple condition where using while loop is better than for loop

if i have to use the value of counter in my program then i think while loop is better than for loop

Using while loop

int counter = 0;
while (counter < 10) {
    //do some task
    if(some condition){
        break;
    }
}
useTheCounter(counter); // method which use that value of counter do some other task

In this case I found while loop is better than for loop because if i want to achieve the same in for loop i have to assign the value of counter to another variable.

But is there any specific situation when while loop is better than for loop

Answer 1

One main difference is while loops are best suited when you do not know ahead of time the number of iterations that you need to do. When you know this before entering the loop you can use for loop.