C loop - break vs continue

Question

In a C   feel free to answer for other languages  loop  what s the difference between break and continue as a means to leave the structure of the loop  and go to the next iteration   Example   foreach  DataRow row in myTable Rows        if  someConditionEvalsToTrue                break    what s the difference between this and continue             continue

User · Answer

I used to always get confused whether I should use break, or continue. This is what helps me remember:

When to use break vs continue?

Break - it's like breaking up. It's sad, you guys are parting. The loop is exited.

Continue - means that you're gonna give today a rest and sort it all out tomorrow (i.e. skip the current iteration)!

User · Answer

break will exit the loop completely  continue will just skip the current iteration   For example   for  int i   0  i  lt  10  i          if  i    0            break             DoSomeThingWith i       The break will cause the loop to exit on the first iteration - DoSomeThingWith will never be executed  This here   for  int i   0  i  lt  10  i          if i    0            continue             DoSomeThingWith i       Will not execute DoSomeThingWith for i   0  but the loop will continue and DoSomeThingWith will be executed for i   1 to i   9

User · Answer

Please let me state the obvious  note that adding neither break nor continue  will resume your program  i e  I trapped for a certain error  then after logging it  I wanted to resume processing  and there were more code tasks in between the next row  so I just let it fall through

User · Answer

Simple answer    Break exits the loop immediately  Continue starts processing the next item   If there are any  by jumping to the evaluating line of the for while

User · Answer

By example  foreach var i in Enumerable Range 1 3         Console WriteLine i       Prints 1  2  3  on separate lines    Add a break condition at i   2  foreach var i in Enumerable Range 1 3         if  i    2          break       Console WriteLine i       Now the loop prints 1 and stops   Replace the break with a continue   foreach var i in Enumerable Range 1 3         if  i    2          continue       Console WriteLine i       Now to loop prints 1 and 3  skipping 2    Thus  break stops the loop  whereas continue skips to the next iteration

User · Answer

break would stop the foreach loop completely  continue would skip to the next DataRow

User · Answer

A really easy way to understand this is to place the word  loop  after each of the keywords   The terms now make sense if they are just read like everyday phrases   break loop - looping is broken and stops   continue loop - loop continues to execute with the next iteration

User · Answer

There are more than a few people who don t like break and continue  The latest complaint I saw about them was in JavaScript  The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford  But I find that sometimes using one of them really simplifies things  especially if your language doesn t include a do-while or do-until style of loop   I tend to use break in loops that are searching a list for something  Once found  there s no point in continuing  so you might as well quit   I use continue when doing something with most elements of a list  but still want to skip over a few   The break statement also comes in handy when polling for a valid response from somebody or something  Instead of   Ask a question While the answer is invalid      Ask the question   You could eliminate some duplication and use   While True      Ask a question     If the answer is valid          break   The do-until loop that I mentioned before is the more elegant solution for that particular problem   Do      Ask a question     Until the answer is valid   No duplication  and no break needed either

User · Answer

Break  Break forces a loop to exit immediately    Continue  This does the opposite of break  Instead of terminating the loop  it immediately loops again  skipping the rest of the code

User · Answer

break causes the program counter to jump out of the scope of the innermost loop  for i   0  i  lt  10  i          if i    2          break      Works like this  for i   0  i  lt  10  i          if i    2          goto BREAK    BREAK     continue jumps to the end of the loop   In a for loop  continue jumps to the increment expression   for i   0  i  lt  10  i          if i    2          continue       printf   d   i       Works like this  for i   0  i  lt  10  i          if i    2          goto CONTINUE       printf   d   i        CONTINUE

User · Answer

All have given a very good explanation  I am still posting my answer just to give an example if that can help      break statement for  int i   0  i  lt  5  i          if  i    3            break     It will force to come out from the loop            lblDisplay Text   lblDisplay Text   i     Printed         Here is the output      0 Printed  1 Printed  2 Printed     So 3 Printed   amp  4 Printed  will not be displayed as there is break when i    3    continue statement for  int i   0  i  lt  5  i          if  i    3            continue     It will take the control to start point of loop            lblDisplay Text   lblDisplay Text   i     Printed         Here is the output      0 Printed  1 Printed  2 Printed  4 Printed     So 3 Printed   will not be displayed as there is continue when i    3

User · Answer

To break completely out of a foreach loop  break is used   To go to the next iteration in the loop  continue is used   Break is useful if you   re looping through a collection of Objects  like Rows in a Datatable  and you are searching for a particular match  when you find that match  there   s no need to continue through the remaining rows  so you want to break out   Continue is useful when you have accomplished what you need to in side a loop iteration  You   ll normally have continue after an if

User · Answer

if you don t want to use break you just increase value of I in such a way that it make iteration condition false and loop will not execute on next iteration   for int i   0  i  lt  list Count  i        if i    5      i   list Count     it will make  i lt list Count  false and loop will exit

User · Answer

As for other languages    VB For i 0 To 10    If i 5 then Exit For    break in C       Do Something for i lt 5 next  For i 0 To 10    If i 5 then Continue For    continue in C      Do Something for i lt  gt 5    Next

User · Answer

Ruby unfortunately is a bit different   PS  My memory is a bit hazy on this so apologies if I m wrong  instead of break continue  it has break next  which behave the same in terms of loops  Loops  like everything else  are expressions  and  return  the last thing that they did  Most of the time  getting the return value from a loop is pointless  so everyone just does this  a   5 while a  lt  10     a   1 end   You can however do this  a   5 b   while a  lt  10     a   1 end   b is now 10   HOWEVER  a lot of ruby code  emulates  a loop by using a block  The canonical example is  10 times do  x      puts x end   As it is much more common for people to want to do things with the result of a block  this is where it gets messy  break next mean different things in the context of a block   break will jump out of the code that called the block  next will skip the rest of the code in the block  and  return  what you specify to the caller of the block  This doesn t make any sense without examples   def timesten     10 times   t  puts yield t   end   timesten do  x     x   2 end   will print 2 4 6 8     and so on   timesten do  x      break     x   2 end   won t print anything  The break jumps out of the timesten function entirely  and the call to  puts  inside it gets skipped  timesten do  x      break 5     x   2 end   This is the same as above  it s  returning  5  but nobody is catching it  If you did a   timesten    then a would get assigned to 5  timesten do  x      next 5     x   2 end    this would print 5 5 5     and so on  because  next 5  skips the  x   2  and  returns  5    So yeah  Ruby is awesome  but it has some awful corner-cases  This is the second worst one I ve seen in my years of using it  -

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