The break and continue both are used to skip the iteration of a loop. These keywords are helpful in controlling the flow of the program. Difference between break and continue:
- The break statement terminates the whole iteration of a loop whereas continue skips the current iteration.
- The break statement terminates the whole loop early whereas the continue brings the next iteration early.
- In a loop for switch, break acts as terminator for case only whereas continue 2 acts as terminator for case and skips the current iteration of loop.
Program 1: This program illustrates the continue statement inside a loop.
php
<?php for ( $i = 1; $i < 10; $i ++) {
if ( $i % 2 == 0) {
continue ;
}
echo $i . " " ;
} ?> |
Output:
php
<?php for ( $i = 1; $i < 10; $i ++) {
if ( $i == 5) {
break ;
}
echo $i . " " ;
} ?> |
Output:
php
<?php for ( $i = 10; $i <= 15; $i ++) {
switch ( $i ) {
case 10:
echo "Ten" ;
break ;
case 11:
continue 2;
case 12:
echo "Twelve" ;
break ;
case 13:
echo "Thirteen" ;
break ;
case 14:
continue 2;
case 15:
echo "Fifteen" ;
break ;
}
echo "<br> Below switch, and i = " . $i . ' <br><br> ' ;
} ?> |
Output:
Let us see the differences in a tabular form -:
Break | Continue | |
1. | The break statement is used to jump out of a loop. | The continue statement is used to skip an iteration from a loop |
2. |
Its syntax is -: break; |
Its syntax is -: continue; |
3. | The break is a keyword present in the language | continue is a keyword present in the language |
4. | It can be used with loops ex-: for loop, while loop. | It can be used with loops ex-: for loop, while loop. |
5. | The break statement is also used in switch statements | We can use continue with a switch statement to skip a case. |