Flash cards
Review the key moves
What is the main idea behind Java Break and Continue?
Lesson checks
Practice each idea before moving on
Short Mimo-style checks built from this lesson's code, terms, and sequence.
Which statement best captures the main point of this lesson?
Complete the missing token from the example code.
___ (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {Put the learning moves in the order that makes the concept easiest to apply.
Break
You have already seen the break statement used in an earlier chapter of this tutorial. It was used to "jump out" of a switch statement.
The break statement can also be used to jump out of a loop .
This example stops the loop when i is equal to 4:
Example
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
if (i == 4) {
break;
}
System.out.println(i);
}Continue
The continue statement breaks one iteration (in the loop), if a specified condition occurs, and continues with the next iteration in the loop.
This example skips the value of 4:
Example
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
if (i == 4) {
continue;
}
System.out.println(i);
}Good to Remember
- break = stop the loop completely.
- continue = skip this round, but keep looping.
Combining Break and Continue
You can also combine break and continue .
This example skips printing 2 and stops the loop at 4:
Example
for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
if (i == 2) {
continue;
}
if (i == 4) {
break;
}
System.out.println(i);
}Break and Continue in While Loop
You can also use break and continue in while loops:
Break Example
int i = 0;
while (i < 10) {
System.out.println(i);
i++;
if (i == 4) {
break;
}
}Continue Example
int i = 0;
while (i < 10) {
if (i == 4) {
i++;
continue;
}
System.out.println(i);
i++;
}Real-Life Example
Imagine processing a list of numbers where you want to skip negative values, but stop completely if you find a zero:
Example
int[] numbers = {3, -1, 7, 0, 9};
for (int n : numbers) {
if (n < 0) {
continue; // skip negative numbers
}
if (n == 0) {
break; // stop loop when zero is found
}
System.out.println(n);
}Note
Don't worry if you don't fully understand the example above. It uses an array ( int[] numbers = {3, -1, 7, 0, 9}; ) to store the numbers, and you will learn more about arrays in the next chapter.