Continue and Break

Continue

Continue is used to skips the remaining code in a loop's body for the current iteration. When continue is encountered within a loop, it jumps to the next iteration, bypassing any code that follows it within the loop for the current iteration. For example, in a loop that iterates over a list of numbers, if continue is triggered when the current number is negative, it skips any code below it for that particular iteration. It’s useful when specific iterations need to be skipped based on certain conditions while allowing the loop to continue executing.

Code Example

for (int i = 1; i <= 10; ++i) {
    if (i % 3 == 0) {
        continue;
    }
    printf("%d ", i);
}

Break

Break is used to immediately exit a loop. When encountered within a loop, break terminates the loop's execution and continues with the code following the loop. For example, in a for loop that counts from 1 to 10, if break is encountered when the counter reaches 5, the loop stops and the program moves to the line of code immediately after the loop. It's handy for prematurely ending a loop based on certain conditions, avoiding unnecessary iterations.

Code Example

for (int i = 1; i <= 10; ++i) {
    printf("%d ", i);
    if (i == 5) {
        break;
    }
}