6.7 JS Break Loops

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 1: JS loop with a break statement

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  if (i === 3) { break; }
  text += "The number is " + i + "<br>";
}

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 2: JS loop with a continue statement

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  if (i === 3) { continue; }
  text += "The number is " + i + "<br>";
}

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 3: JS break

var cars = ["BMW", "Volvo", "Saab", "Ford"];
list: {
  text += cars[0] + "<br>";
  text += cars[1] + "<br>";
  break list;
  text += cars[2] + "<br>";
  text += cars[3] + "<br>";

A code block is a block of code between { and }.