JavaScript Break and Continue
The break
statement "jumps out" of a loop.
The continue
statement "jumps over" one iteration in
the loop.
The Break Statement
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:
Example
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
if (i === 3) { break; }
text += "The number is " + i + "<br>";
}
Try it Yourself »
In the example above, the break
statement ends the loop ("breaks" the loop)
when the loop counter (i) is 3.
The Continue Statement
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 3:
Example
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
if (i === 3) { continue; }
text += "The number is " + i + "<br>";
}
Try it Yourself »
JavaScript Labels
To label JavaScript statements you precede the statements with a label name and a colon:
label:
statements
The break
and the continue
statements are the only JavaScript statements that
can "jump out of" a code block.
Syntax:
break labelname;
continue labelname;
The continue
statement (with or without a label reference) can only be used to skip one
loop iteration.
The break
statement, without a label reference, can only be used to
jump out of a loop
or a switch.
With a label reference, the break statement can be used to jump out of any code block:
Example
const cars = ["BMW", "Volvo", "Saab", "Ford"];
list: {
text += cars[0] + "<br>";
text += cars[1] + "<br>";
break list;
text += cars[2] + "<br>";
text += cars[3] + "<br>";
}
Try it Yourself »
A code block is a block of code between { and }.