Break
and continue
are loop control statements in C++ that are used to exit from the loop or skip any iteration in the loop.
Break
The break
statement is used to terminate the loop. As soon as a break
statement is executed within the loop, the loop iteration stops and the very next statement after the loop starts executing.
break;
The flow of a break
statement is illustrated in the diagram below.
The break
statement can be implemented in 3 types of loops:
In a simple loop, the code right after the loop executes upon encountering a break
statement.
#include <iostream>using namespace std;int main() {cout << "Before loop" << endl;for (int i=0 ; i<10 ; i++){cout << i << endl;if(i==5){break;}}cout << "After loop";return 0;}
In a nested loop, a break
statement only terminates the innermost loop.
#include <iostream>using namespace std;int main() {cout << "Before loop" << endl;for (int i=0 ; i<10 ; i++){cout << "i: " << i << endl;for (int j =0 ; j< 3 ; j++){cout << "j: " << j << endl;if(j==1){cout << "using break ----" << endl;break;}}}cout << "After loop";return 0;}
In an infinite loop, the break
statement is used to terminate the loop and exit the infinite loop.
#include <iostream>using namespace std;int main() {int i = 0 ;while(1){cout << "i:" << i << endl;if(i==15){cout << "using break----" << endl;break;}i++;}}
Continue
A continue
statement, just like a break
statement, is a loop control statement. Instead of terminating the loop and exiting from it, the continue
statement forces the loop to skip the current iteration and continue from the next iteration.
continue;
The flow of a continue
statement is illustrated in the diagram below.
An example of the continue
statement is given below.
#include <iostream>using namespace std;int main() {// your code goes herefor (int i=1; i<=10 ; i++){if(i%2==0){cout <<"missing itertionusing continue statement" << endl;continue;}cout << i << endl;}return 0;}