break and continue Statements

• The break statement, when executed in a while, for, do…while or switch, causes immediate exit from that statement.
• Execution continues with the first statement after the control statement.
• Common uses of the break statement are to escape early from a loop or to skip the remainder of a switch.

// Fig. 5.12: BreakTest.java
// break statement exiting a for statement.
public class BreakTest 
{
   public static void main( String[] args )
   {
      int count; // control variable also used after loop terminates
      
      for ( count = 1; count <= 10; count++ ) // loop 10 times
      {  
         if ( count == 5 ) // if count is 5, 
            break;         // terminate loop

         System.out.printf( "%d ", count );
      } // end for

      System.out.printf( "\nBroke out of loop at count = %d\n", count );
   } // end main
} // end class BreakTest

• The continue statement, when executed in a while, for or do…while, skips the remaining statements in the loop body and proceeds with the next iteration of the loop.
• In while and do…while statements, the program evaluates the loop-continuation test immediately after the continue statement executes.
• In a for statement, the increment expression executes, then the program evaluates the loop-continuation test.

// Fig. 5.13: ContinueTest.java
// continue statement terminating an iteration of a for statement.
public class ContinueTest 
{
   public static void main( String[] args )
   {
      for ( int count = 1; count <= 10; count++ ) // loop 10 times
      {  
         if ( count == 5 ) // if count is 5, 
            continue; // skip remaining code in loop

         System.out.printf( "%d ", count );
      } // end for

      System.out.println( "\nUsed continue to skip printing 5" );
   } // end main
} // end class ContinueTest