Iteration, as we know from imperative languages, is represented as FOR loops and WHILE loops. Although the subtle differences between the loops is important for a programmer to understand and make use of it is not important for a designer. In fact iteration in JSP is kept fairly simple. In order to repeat we need to have a fundamental operation. Going back to the example of a serial search we know that the operation we must do numerous times is the checking of elements against the search criteria.

The diagram is read as follows; a serial search will check elements numerous times. We show that a operation has more fundamental operations by drawing a line underneath. This is simply read as “in order to do A we must do B” where there is a line from A to B. As such in order to do a serial search we must check elements. The * symbol denotes iteration. It simply means that we are allowed to do the check element operation numerous times. It puts no guards on to say when we can start or stop. This is not a replacement for pseudo code. It is simply showing the structure of the code not exactly what it is to do.