Break and Continue statements.

Break and Continue Statement

Break statement

The Break statement is used to exit from the loop for a particular condition.

Sometimes it is necessary to stop the execution of program at certain condition.

Uses of break statement

  • It is used in switch case statement to break when matching case is found.
  • It is also used in the looping such as while,do-while and for loop etc.
  • It is used in looping to immediately exit or terminate the loop.

Flowchart

Break Statement Flowchart

Syntax

break;

Example - break using switch case

Program to stop the case execution when break statement is found.

public class BreakSwitch 
{
   public static void main(String[] args) 
   {
      int num = 1;
      switch(num)
      {

	 case 1:
	    System.out.println("I'm case 1");
	 case 2:
	    System.out.println("I'm case 2");
	 case 3:
	    System.out.println("I'm case 3");
	 break;
	 
         case 4:
	     System.out.println("I'm case 4");

	}
   }
}

Output

I'm case 1
I'm case 2
I'm case 3

Example - break using loop

Program to stop the loop execution when break statement is found.

public class BreakLoop 
{
   public static void main(String[] args) 
   {
       for(int i=1;i<=10;i++)
       {
	   if(i==5)
	       break;
	   else
	       System.out.println("i = "+i);
        }		
    }
}

Output

i = 1
i = 2
i = 3
i = 4
NOTE : All the statements written after the break statement inside the loop becomes unreachable for code. For better practive we must use break statement at the end of loop.

Continue statement

The continue statement is used to skip the current iteration of loop and goto next iteration without stopping the loop.

Flowchart

Continue Statement Flowchart

Syntax

continue;

Example

public class ContinueTest
{
   public static void main(String[] args) 
   {
       for(int i=1;i<=10;i++)
       {
	  if(i==5)
	      continue;
	  else
	      System.out.println("i = "+i);
       }
   }
}

Output

i = 1
i = 2
i = 3
i = 4
i = 6
i = 7
i = 8
i = 9
i = 10

Difference between Break and Continue statement

Sr.No Break statement Continue statement
1. It can be used in switch and loops It is used in loops only.
2. It terminates the execution process for given condition It does not terminate the execution process but it skips the statements when given condition becomes true.
3. when break appears, the control goes out of the switch of loop when continue appears, the control goes at the beginning of the loop.
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