for Repeat statements a specific number of times.
The general form of a for statement is:

for variable = expr, statement, …, statement END

The columns of the expression are stored one at a time in
the variable and then the following statements, up to the
END, are executed. The expression is often of the form X:Y,
in which case its columns are simply scalars. Some examples
(assume N has already been assigned a value).

1
2
3
4
5

for I = 1:N,
for J = 1:N,
A(I,J) = 1/(I+J-1);
END
END

for S = 1.0: -0.1: 0.0, END steps S with increments of -0.1
for E = EYE(N), … END sets E to the unit N-vectors.

Long loops are more memory efficient when the colon expression appears
in the for statement since the index vector is never created.

The BREAK statement can be used to terminate the loop prematurely.

See also if, while, switch, break, end.