What are loop control statements in Perl?

Loop control statements control the execution of a loop in our code. They can change the execution sequence according to the programmer’s needs.

Perl includes the following loop control statements:

  • continue
  • goto
  • last
  • next
  • redo
Loop control statements in Perl

The continue statement

A continue statement is executed just before the loop condition is re-evaluated.

Any code written within a continue block is executed. Then the line counter is reset, and we jump back to the start of the loop.

We can use the continue statement with while and foreach loops. The following is the syntax for writing a continue block:

continue {
 # statements to be executed just before the loop is reset again
}

Code

$x = 0;
while($x <= 5) {
   print "x = $x\n";
} continue {
   $x++;
}

In the example above, we write the increment statement (＄x++) within the continue block.

As a result, x is incremented just before the loop condition is evaluated again.

The goto statement

A goto statement shifts the program’s control flow from one place to another.

There are three forms of the goto statement:

  1. goto - LABEL: Jumps to the statement identified with LABEL.

  2. goto - EXPR: Expects the expression (EXPR) to return a label and then jumps to that labeled statement.

  3. goto - &NAME: Substitutes a call to the named subroutine (&NAME) for the currently running subroutine.

The following is the syntax for a goto statement:

goto LABEL / EXPR / &NAME

Code

$x = 0;
# goto label
LOOP: while ($x <= 10)
{
    if($x == 2 || $x == 3 || $x == 5 || $x == 7)
    {
        print "$x is prime\n";
        $x++;
        goto LOOP
    }
    $x++;
}
print "--------------------------------------------\n";
#goto expression
$y = 0;
$first_half = "PR";
$second_half = "IME";
PRIME: while ($y <= 10)
{
    if($y == 2 || $y == 3 || $y == 5 || $y == 7)
    {
        print "$y is prime\n";
        $y++;
        goto $first_half.$second_half;
    }
    $y++;
}
print "--------------------------------------------\n";
#goto subroutine
$z = 0;
while ($z <= 10)
{
    goto &isPrime($z);
    INC: $z++;
}
goto FINISH;
sub isPrime{
    my $n = shift @_;
    if ($n > 10 || $n < 0)
    {
        goto ERROR;
    }
    elsif ($n == 2 || $n == 3 || $n == 5 || $n == 7)
    {
        print "$n is prime\n";
    }
    goto INC;
}
ERROR: print "ERROR: Input must be between 0 and 10\n";
FINISH: print "\nWe learned goto!";

In the example above, we go through all forms of the goto statement.

In the first section, we use goto with the LOOP label.

The second section defines a new label, PRIME, which is passed to the goto statement as an expression that concatenates two strings.

Finally, we define a subroutine and use goto to jump from our loop to the subroutine and back.

The last statement

The last statement immediately terminates the loop. Once the last statement is executed, we exit from the scope of the loop, and the next statement after the loop is executed.

If a continue block has been defined, it is not executed once the last statement is encountered.

We can also pass an optional label (to a loop) to the last statement. The last statement applies to the nearest loop when used within a nested loop and without a label.

The following is the syntax for a last statement:

last [LABEL]

Code

$x = 0;
while ($x <= 10)
{
  print "x = $x\n";
  if($x == 5){
    last;
  }
  $x++;
}
print "\nLoop ended!\n"

In the above example, the loop is set to run until x is less than or equal to 10.

However, since we have added the last statement for when x is equal to 5, the loop terminates.

The next statement

The next statement skips the remainder of the loop and starts the next iteration of the loop.

We can also use next with a LABEL for a loop. If a continue block is defined, it is always executed once a next statement is encountered.

Below is the syntax of a next statement:

next [LABEL]

Code

@list = (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7);
# foreach loop execution
foreach $x (@list) {
  if ($x == 2 || $x == 3 || $x == 5 || $x == 7){
    print "$x is prime\n";
    next;
  }
  print "$x is not prime\n";
}

Here, we define a list of numbers. If the number is prime, the relevant statement is printed and the next statement takes us back to the start of the loop.

The redo statement

The redo statement restarts the loop but does not evaluate the loop condition again.

The redo statement can also be passed a label for a loop. If used within a nested loop and without a label, the redo statement will be applicable to the nearest loop.

If a continue block is defined, it is not executed.

The following is the syntax for a redo statement:

redo [LABEL]

Code

$x = 1;
  
# Assigning label to loop
$itr = 1;
LOOP: while($itr < 10) {
   $x++;
   $itr++;
   redo LOOP if ($x < 100);
}
  
# Printing the value
print ("x = $x\niterations: $itr\n");

Here, we define the LOOP label and associate it with the while loop.

The while loop has been set to accommodate 10 iterations. However, at the end of the loop, we include the redo statement. This allows the loop to restart without checking the loop condition. Therefore, we can see that until x acquires a value of 100, the loop will continue to function.

The total number of iterations is also 100, a lot more than our condition of 10.

Free Resources

Copyright ©2025 Educative, Inc. All rights reserved