The break and continue statements are the jump statements that are used to skip some statements inside the loop or terminate the loop immediately without checking the test expression. These statements can be used inside any loops such as for, while, do-while loop.
Break: The break statement in java is used to terminate from the loop immediately. When a break statement is encountered inside a loop, the loop iteration stops there, and control returns from the loop immediately to the first statement after the loop. Basically, break statements are used in situations when we are not sure about the actual number of iteration for the loop, or we want to terminate the loop based on some condition.
Syntax :
break;
In Java, a break statement is majorly used for:
- To exit a loop.
- Used as a “civilized” form of goto.
- Terminate a sequence in a switch statement.
Using break to exit a loop
Using break, we can force immediate termination of a loop, bypassing the conditional expression and any remaining code in the body of the loop. When we use break inside the nested loops, it will only break out of the innermost loop.
Example:
Java
// Java program to demonstrate using// break to exit a loopclass GFG { public static void main(String[] args) { // Initially loop is set to run from 0-9 for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { // Terminate the loop when i is 5 if (i == 5) break; System.out.println("i: " + i); } System.out.println("Out of Loop"); }} |
i: 0 i: 1 i: 2 i: 3 i: 4 Out of Loop
Using break as a Form of Goto
Java does not have a goto statement because it provides a way to branch in an arbitrary and unstructured manner. Java uses a label. A Label is used to identify a block of code.
Syntax:
label:
{
statement1;
statement2;
statement3;
.
.
}
Now, the break statements can be used to jump out of the target block. We cannot break to any label which is not defined for an enclosing block.
Syntax:
break label;
Example:
Java
// Java program to demonstrates using break with gotoclass GFG { public static void main(String args[]) { // First label first: for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // Second label second: for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++) { if (i == 1 && j == 1) { // Using break statement with label break first; } System.out.println(i + " " + j); } } }} |
0 0 0 1 0 2 1 0
Using break to terminate a sequence in a switch statement.
The switch statement is a multi-way branch statement. It provides an easy way to dispatch execution to different parts of code based on the value of the expression. The break statement is used inside the switch to terminate a statement sequence. The break statement is optional. If omitted, execution will continue on into the next case.
Syntax:
switch (expression)
{
case value1:
statement1;
break;
case value2:
statement2;
break;
.
.
case valueN:
statementN;
break;
default:
statementDefault;
}
Example:
Java
// Java program to demonstrate using break to terminate a// sequence in a switch statement.class GFG { public static void main(String args[]) { int i = 2; switch (i) { case 0: System.out.println("i is zero."); break; case 1: System.out.println("i is one."); break; case 2: System.out.println("i is two."); break; default: System.out.println("Invalid number"); } }} |
i is two.
Continue:
The continue statement in Java is used to skip the current iteration of a loop. We can use continue statement inside any types of loops such as for, while, and do-while loop. Basically continue statements are used in the situations when we want to continue the loop but do not want the remaining statement after the continue statement.
Syntax:
continue;
Using continue to continue a loop
Using continue, we can skip the current iteration of a loop and jumps to the next iteration of the loop immediately.
Example:
Java
// Java program to demonstrates the continue// statement to continue a loopclass GFG { public static void main(String args[]) { for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { // If the number is 2 // skip and continue if (i == 2) continue; System.out.print(i + " "); } }} |
0 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Using continue as a labelled continue statement
The unlabeled continue statement is used to continue the innermost loop. However, since JDK 1.5 java introduces another feature known as labelled continue statement. We can use a labelled continue statement to continue the outermost loop.
Example:
Java
// Java program to demonstrates labeled continue statementclass GFG { public static void main(String args[]) { // First label first: for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // Second label second: for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++) { if (i == 1 && j == 1) { // Using continue statement with label continue first; } System.out.println(i + " " + j); } } }} |
0 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 2 0 2 1 2 2
Difference between break and continue:
|
Break |
Continue |
|---|---|
|
The break statement is used to terminate the loop immediately. |
The continue statement is used to skip the current iteration of the loop. |
|
break keyword is used to indicate break statements in java programming. |
continue keyword is used to indicate continue statement in java programming. |
|
We can use a break with the switch statement. |
We can not use a continue with the switch statement. |
|
The break statement terminates the whole loop early. |
The continue statement brings the next iteration early. |
|
It stops the execution of the loop. |
It does not stop the execution of the loop. |
