I wouldn't say it's bad - but equally I would normally at least look for an alternative.
In situations where it's the first thing I write, I almost always at least try to refactor it into something clearer. Sometimes it can't be helped (or the alternative is to have a bool
variable which does nothing meaningful except indicate the end of the loop, less clearly than a break
statement) but it's worth at least trying.
As an example of where it's clearer to use break
than a flag, consider:
while (true)
{
doStuffNeededAtStartOfLoop();
int input = getSomeInput();
if (testCondition(input))
{
break;
}
actOnInput(input);
}
Now let's force it to use a flag:
boolean running = true;
while (running)
{
doStuffNeededAtStartOfLoop();
int input = getSomeInput();
if (testCondition(input))
{
running = false;
}
else
{
actOnInput(input);
}
}
I view the latter as more complicated to read: it's got an extra else
block, the actOnInput
is more indented, and if you're trying to work out what happens when testCondition
returns true
, you need to look carefully through the rest of the block to check that there isn't something after the else
block which would occur whether running
has been set to false
or not.
The break
statement communicates the intent more clearly, and lets the rest of the block get on with what it needs to do without worrying about earlier conditions.
Note that this is exactly the same sort of argument that people have about multiple return statements in a method. For example, if I can work out the result of a method within the first few lines (e.g. because some input is null, or empty, or zero) I find it clearer to return that answer directly than to have a variable to store the result, then a whole block of other code, and finally a return
statement.