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.
The break statement breaks the loop and continues executing the code after the loop (if any):
Example
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
if (i === 3) { break; }
text += "The number is " + i + "<br>";
}
Try it Yourself
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 (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
var
cars = ["BMW", "Volvo", "Saab", "Ford"];
list:
{
text += cars[0] + "<br>";
text += cars[1] + "<br>";
text += cars[2] + "<br>";
break list;
text += cars[3] + "<br>";
text += cars[4] + "<br>";
text += cars[5] + "<br>";
}
Try it Yourself
A code block is a block of code between { and }.