What is the keyword used to stop the current loop and go to the next iteration?

The break and continue statements are the jump statements that are used to skip some statements inside the loop or terminate the loop immediately without checking the test expression. These statements can be used inside any loops such as for, while, do-while loop.

Break: The break statement in java is used to terminate from the loop immediately. When a break statement is encountered inside a loop, the loop iteration stops there, and control returns from the loop immediately to the first statement after the loop. Basically, break statements are used in situations when we are not sure about the actual number of iteration for the loop, or we want to terminate the loop based on some condition.

Syntax :

break;

In Java, a break statement is majorly used for:

• To exit a loop.
• Used as a “civilized” form of goto.
• Terminate a sequence in a switch statement.

Using break to exit a loop

Using break, we can force immediate termination of a loop, bypassing the conditional expression and any remaining code in the body of the loop. When we use break inside the nested loops, it will only break out of the innermost loop.

Example:

Java

class GFG {

    public static void main(String[] args)

    {

        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {

            if (i == 5)

                break;

            System.out.println("i: " + i);

        }

        System.out.println("Out of Loop");

    }

}

Output

i: 0
i: 1
i: 2
i: 3
i: 4
Out of Loop

Using break as a Form of Goto

Java does not have a goto statement because it provides a way to branch in an arbitrary and unstructured manner. Java uses a label. A Label is used to identify a block of code.

Syntax: 

label:
{
  statement1;
  statement2;
  statement3;
  .
  .
}

Now, the break statements can be used to jump out of the target block. We cannot break to any label which is not defined for an enclosing block.

Syntax: 

break label;

Example: 

Java

class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

    first:

        for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {

        second:

            for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++) {

                if (i == 1 && j == 1) {

                    break first;

                }

                System.out.println(i + " " + j);

            }

        }

    }

}

Using break to terminate a sequence in a switch statement.

The switch statement is a multi-way branch statement. It provides an easy way to dispatch execution to different parts of code based on the value of the expression. The break statement is used inside the switch to terminate a statement sequence. The break statement is optional. If omitted, execution will continue on into the next case.

Syntax: 

switch (expression)
{
  case value1:
    statement1;
    break;
  case value2:
    statement2;
    break;
  .
  .
  case valueN:
    statementN;
    break;
  default:
    statementDefault;
}

Example:

Java

class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        int i = 2;

        switch (i) {

        case 0:

            System.out.println("i is zero.");

            break;

        case 1:

            System.out.println("i is one.");

            break;

        case 2:

            System.out.println("i is two.");

            break;

        default:

            System.out.println("Invalid number");

        }

    }

}

Continue:

The continue statement in Java is used to skip the current iteration of a loop. We can use continue statement inside any types of loops such as for, while, and do-while loop. Basically continue statements are used in the situations when we want to continue the loop but do not want the remaining statement after the continue statement.

Syntax: 

continue;

Using continue to continue a loop

Using continue, we can skip the current iteration of a loop and jumps to the next iteration of the loop immediately.

Example: 

Java

class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {

            if (i == 2)

                continue;

            System.out.print(i + " ");

        }

    }

}

Using continue as a labelled continue statement

The unlabeled continue statement is used to continue the innermost loop. However, since JDK 1.5 java introduces another feature known as labelled continue statement. We can use a labelled continue statement to continue the outermost loop.

Example: 

Java

class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

    first:

        for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {

        second:

            for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++) {

                if (i == 1 && j == 1) {

                    continue first;

                }

                System.out.println(i + " " + j);

            }

        }

    }

}

Output

0 0
0 1
0 2
1 0
2 0
2 1
2 2

Difference between break and continue:

What keyword is used to end the current loop iteration?

Which keyword will stop the current iteration of a loop and move on to the next iteration?

How do you stop loop iteration?

How do you make a loop go to next iteration?