for loop not looping, returns only initial value

Question

Trying to get it to subtract down from i by 4's and return the final results (answer is either: 1, 2, 3 or 4)

for(uint i = 1000; i >= 1; i-=4)    { 

            return(i);  

        }

but when I return(i); or return i; i get the initial value of i (in this case 1000) not the subtracted value.

Any explanations or help is appreciated.

Answer 1

It exits/breaks from the loop on the first iteration of return.

It sounds like you're expecting it to return multiple times but only one response is possible.

Hope it helps.

EDIT

Based on the comment below, a loop isn't the solution. You want a modulo (remainder) and this can be done in one step.

pragma solidity 0.4.24;

contract Modulo {

    function getMod4(uint number) public pure returns(uint modulo) {
        return number % 4;
    }
}

Answer 2

More specifically, as soon as you call return, the whole function which contains this loop will stop and return whatever you passed in the return statement. Think of return as a hard stop to any function execution.

In this case, as soon as return(i) runs the first time, the loop will stop, which is why you are getting back 1000, which is the value you started with.

If you want to return the last value i you need to do something like this:

function remainder() public pure returns(uint) {
  uint r;
  for(uint i = 1000; i >= 1; i-=4) { 
    r = i;  
  }

  return r;
}

But this is super inefficient and will waste a bunch of gas (if called within another function). You should be using the modulus operator for this kind of math. In solidity, the modulus operator is represented by %.

Here is an example of a function which does what I think you want:

function remainderBetter(uint i) public pure returns(uint){
    uint r = i % 4;
    if (r == 0) {
        return 4;
    }

    return r;
}