What is the purpose of the `break` and `continue` statements?
TL;DR
The break
statement is used to exit a loop or switch statement prematurely, while the continue
statement skips the current iteration of a loop and proceeds to the next iteration. For example, in a for
loop, break
will stop the loop entirely, and continue
will skip to the next iteration.
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
if (i === 5) break; // exits the loop when i is 5
console.log(i);
}
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
if (i === 5) continue; // skips the iteration when i is 5
console.log(i);
}
Purpose of the break
and continue
statements
break
statement
The break
statement is used to exit a loop or a switch statement before it has completed all its iterations or cases. This is useful when you want to stop the execution of the loop or switch based on a certain condition.
Example in a loop
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
if (i === 5) break; // exits the loop when i is 5
console.log(i);
}
// Output: 0 1 2 3 4
Example in a switch statement
switch (day) {
case 1:
console.log('Monday');
break;
case 2:
console.log('Tuesday');
break;
// other cases
default:
console.log('Invalid day');
}
continue
statement
The continue
statement is used to skip the current iteration of a loop and proceed to the next iteration. This is useful when you want to skip certain iterations based on a condition without exiting the loop entirely.
Example in a loop
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
if (i === 5) continue; // skips the iteration when i is 5
console.log(i);
}
// Output: 0 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9
Differences between break
and continue
- The
break
statement exits the loop or switch statement entirely. - The
continue
statement skips the current iteration and moves to the next iteration of the loop.